Life Sciences Commons^™

Living More Than Just Enough For The City: Persistence Of High-Quality Vegetation In Natural Areas In An Urban Setting, Rebecca W. Dolan, Jessica D. Stephens, Marcia E. Moore

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Urban environments pose special challenges to flora, including altered disturbance regimes, habitat fragmentation, and increased opportunity for invasion by non-native species. In addition, urban natural area represents most people’s contact with nature, given the majority of the world’s population currently live in cities. We used coefficients of conservatism (C-values), a system that ranks species based on perceived fidelity to remnant native plant communities that retain ecological integrity, to quantify habitat quality of 14 sites covering 850 ha within the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, in the Midwestern United States. All sites contained significant natural area and were inventoried via intensive complete …

Effects Of Experimental Nitrogen Additions On Plant Diversity In Tropical Forests Of Contrasting Disturbance Regimes In Southern China, Xiankai Lu, Jiangming Mo, Frank S. Gilliam, Guirui Yu, Wei Zhang, Yunting Fang, Juan Huang

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

Responses of understory plant diversity to nitrogen (N) additions were investigated in reforested forests of contrasting disturbance regimes in southern China from 2003 to 2008: disturbed forest (withharvesting of understory vegetation and litter) and rehabilitated forest (without harvesting). Experimental additions of N were administered as the following treatments: Control, 50 kg N ha1yr1, and 100kg N ha1yr1. Nitrogen additions did not significantly affect understory plant richness, density,and cover in the disturbed forest. Similarly, no significant response was found for canopy closure in thisforest. In the rehabilitated forest, species richness and density showed no significant response to Nadditions; however, understory cover …

Discontinuities: Predicting Invasions And Extinctions, Aaron Lotz

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this dissertation, I explore multiple tenets of the textural discontinuity hypothesis, which states that hierarchical landscape structures with scale-specific pattern entrain attributes of animals inhabiting the landscape. Landscapes form hierarchies that are structured by vegetative, geomorphological and contagious disturbance processes. The spatial and temporal patterns inherent in landscapes reflect numerous processes, interacting on distinct scales, which shape the assembly of animal communities. Analysis of body mass patterns and functional group distributions has been suggested as methods to provide insight about these underlying hierarchical processes. Scientists have posited that species at the edges of body mass aggregations may be exposed …

Documenting Effects Of Urbanization On Flora Using Herbarium Records, Rebecca W. Dolan, Marcia E. Moore, Jessica Stephens

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

1. As human populations increasingly live in cities, urban floras and the ecosystem services they provide are under increasing threat. Understanding the effects of urbanization on plants can help to predict future changes and identify ways to preserve biological diversity. Relatively few studies document changes through time in the flora of a focal region and those that do primarily address European floras. They often rely on contemporary spatial gradient studies as surrogates for changes with time.

2. We compare historical species records (prior to 1940) with the current flora for Marion County, Indiana, USA, home to Indianapolis, the 13th largest city in …

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Living Soil And Sustainability Education: Linking Pedagogy And Pedology, Dilafruz R. Williams, Jonathan D. Brown

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sustainability is now permeating educational institutions. Yet the emerging discourse on sustainability education is in many ways caught in a modern web of theoretical, ontological, and epistemological assumptions that are incongruent with sustainability. We introduce an ecologically grounded metaphoric language rooted in living soil as an alternative regenerative framework for linking sustainability pedagogy with pedology (the study of soil). Five principles that guide this relationship are presented: valuing biocultural diversity, sensitizing our senses, recognizing place, cultivating interconnection, and embracing practical experience. Nurtured within an environment of curiosity, wonder, and questioning, and set to the rhythm and scale of localized ecologies, …

A Synthesis Of Plant Invasion Effects On Biodiversity Across Spatial Scales, Kristin I. Powell, Jonathan M. Chase, Tiffany M. Knight

Biology Faculty Research

PREMISE OF THE STUDY:

Invasive plant species are typically thought to pose a large threat to native biodiversity, and local-scale studies typically confirm this view. However, plant invaders rarely cause regional extirpations or global extinctions, causing some to suggest that invasive species' influence on native biodiversity may not be so dire. We aim to synthesize the seemingly conflicting literature in plant invasion biology by evaluating the effects of invasive plant species across spatial scales.

METHODS:

We first conducted a meta-analysis on the effects of invasive plants on the species richness of invaded communities across a range of spatial extents. We …

Current Status Of Lichen Diversity In Iowa, James T. Colbert

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

No abstract provided.

Research, Monitoring, Assessment And Development Plan 2010 – 2011, Department Of Fisheries

Fisheries Occasional Publications

No abstract provided.

Mapping And Analysing The Diversity Of The Genus Acantholimon Taxa In Turkey By Geographic Information Systems (Gis), Hakan Mete Doğan, Musa Doğan, Gali̇p Akaydin, Ferhat Celep

Turkish Journal of Botany

We describe the spatial distribution of the genus Acantholimon Boiss. (Plumbaginaceae) taxa in Turkey, and assess the role that environmental variables may be playing on this distribution. We collected a large number of specimens from 418 geo-referenced sampling sites between 2000 and 2004, and established a point database using geographic information systems (GIS) software. As a result, we identified and mapped 67 taxa; 43 of the determined taxa appear to be endemic. We re-evaluated the current conservation status of the taxa at a national level using recent IUCN Red List categories. In addition, we extracted the corresponding environmental variables of …

Additional Macrofungi Records From Trabzon Province For The Mycobiota Of Turkey, Ilgaz Akata, Mehmet Gökhan Halici, Yasi̇n Uzun

Turkish Journal of Botany

Four macrofungi taxa (Conocybe filaris (Fr.) Kühner, Hygrocybe glutinipes (J.E.Lange) R.Haller Aar. var. glutinipes, Inocybe calospora Quél., and I. margaritispora (Berk.) Sacc.) collected from Trabzon province are reported from Turkey for the first time. Comments on their habitats and substrata and a short diagnosis are provided for each new taxon new to Turkey.

New Cercidospora Records For Turkey, Mehmet Candan, Mehmet Gökhan Halici

Turkish Journal of Botany

Three lichenicolous species of Cercidospora are reported for the first time from Turkey: Cercidospora crozalsiana on Squamarina lentigera, C. verrucosaria on Megaspora verrucosa, and C. werneri on Aspicilia desertorum. Comments on their morphological and anatomical characters, habitats, and substrata and a short diagnosis are provided for each new record for Turkey. Microphotographs are also provided for each taxon.

Synthesis, Linda H. Pardo, Linda H. Geiser, Mark E. Fenn, Charles T. Driscoll, Christine L. Goodale, Edith B. Allen, Jill S. Baron, Roland Bobbink, William D. Bowman, Christopher M. Clark, Bridget Emmett, Frank S. Gilliam, Tara Greaver, Sharon J. Hall, Erik A. Lilleskov, Lingli Liu, Jason A. Lynch, Knute Nadelhoffer, Steven S. Perakis, Molly J. Robin-Abbott, John L. Stoddard, Kathleen C. Weathers

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

Human activity in the last century has led to a substantial increase in nitrogen (N) emissions and deposition. This N deposition has reached a level that has caused or is likely to cause alterations to the structure and function of many ecosystems across the United States. One approach for quantifying the level of pollution that would be harmful to ecosystems is the critical loads approach. The critical load is dei ned as the level of a pollutant below which no detrimental ecological effect occurs over the long term according to present knowledge.

The objective of this project was to synthesize …

A Taxonomic Revision Of The New World Hypoponera Santschi, 1938 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Shawn Thomas Dash

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The New World taxa of the pantropic ant genus Hypoponera (Ponerinae: Ponerini) is revised for the first time. The 55 previously recognized taxa have been evaluated using morphological and, when possible, ecological and biogeographical data to resolve taxon validity and species limits. Currently I recognize 42 species of Hypoponera , a number of which are new. I propose the following taxonomic outline: Hypoponera agilis (Borgmeier), Hypoponera aliena (F. Smith), Hypoponera antoniensis (Forel) stat. nov., Hypoponera apateae sp. nov., Hypoponera capilosa sp. nov., Hypoponera clinei sp. nov., Hypoponera clavatula (Emery) [= fiebrigi (Forel) syn. nov., = neglecta (Santschi) syn. nov.], Hypoponera …

Invasion By Exotic Earthworms Alters Litter- And Soil-Dwelling Oribatid Mites, Jordan L. Burke, John C. Maerz, Joseph Milanovich, Melanie C. Fisk, Kamal J.K. Gandhi

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Exotic earthworms are drivers of biotic communities in invaded North American forest stands. Here we used ecologically important oribatid mite (Arachnida: Acari) communities, as model organisms to study the responses of litter- and soil-dwelling microarthropod communities to exotic earthworm invasion in a northern temperate forest. Litter- and soil-dwelling mites were sampled in 2008–2009 from forest areas: (1) with no earthworms; (2) those with epigeic and endogeic species, including Lumbricus rubellus Hoffmeister; and (3) those with epigeic, endogeic, and anecic earthworms including L. terrestris L. Species richness and diversity of litter- and soil-dwelling (0–2 cm soil depth) oribatid mites was 1–2 …

Introduction And Establishment Of Cyrtobagous Salviniae Calder And Sands (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) For The Control Of Salvinia Minima Baker (Salviniaceae), And Interspecies Interactions Possibly Limiting Successful Control In Louisiana, Katherine A. Parys

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Common salvinia, Salvinia minima Baker, is a floating aquatic invasive macrophyte that obstructs waterways and causes problems in wetlands across Louisiana and Texas. The salvinia weevil, Cyrtobagous salviniae Calder and Sands, has been released in over 14 countries around the world for the biological control of Salvinia spp. We successfully monitored the introduction and establishment of C. salviniae on S. minima in southern Louisiana between 2006 and 2010. Cyrtobagous salviniae significantly lowered the biomass of S. minima and increased the number of terminal buds damaged but had no significant impact on pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, surface temperature, percent of surface …

Heat Waves Measured With Modis Land Surface Temperature Data Predict Changes In Avian Community Structure, Thomas P. Albright, Anna M. Pidgeon, Chadwick D. Rittenhouse, Murray K. Clayton, Curtis H. Flather, Patrick D. Culbert, Volker C. Radeloff

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Heat waves are expected to become more frequent and severe as climate changes, with unknown consequences for biodiversity. We sought to identify ecologically-relevant broad-scale indicators of heat waves based on MODIS land surface temperature (LST) and interpolated air temperature data and assess their associations with avian community structure. Specifically, we asked which data source, time periods, and heat wave indices best predicted changes in avian abundance and species richness. Using mixed effects models, we analyzed associations between these indices and data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey in the central United States between 2000 and 2007 in four ecoregions …

Carrying Capacity For Species Richness As A Context For Conservation: A Case Study Of North American Breeding Birds, Andrew J. Hansen, Linda Bowers Phillips, Curtis H. Flather, Jim Robinson-Cox

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Aim To demonstrate that the concept of carrying capacity for species richness (S_K) is highly relevant to the conservation of biodiversity, and to estimate the spatial pattern of S_K for native landbirds as a basis for conservation planning.

Location North America.

Methods We evaluated the leading hypotheses on biophysical factors affecting species richness for Breeding Bird Survey routes from areas with little influence of human activities.We then derived a best model based on information theory, and used this model to extrapolate SK across North America based on the biophysical predictor variables. The predictor variables included the …

Exploration Of Genotype Specific Fingerprinting Of Nigella Sativa L. Using Rapd Markers, Muhammad Sajjad Iqbal, Shahid Nadeem, Shahid Mehboob, Abdul Ghafoor, Muhammad Ibrahim Rajoka, Afsari Sharif Qureshi, Bushra Niaz

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Nigella sativa L. has industrial, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical uses but has not been adequately characterized in Pakistan. This investigation was carried out to explore genotype specific fingerprinting of 32 N. sativa L. genotypes based on randomly amplified polymorphic DNA markers. From 58 random primers used, 15 primers generated 249 reproducible and scorable amplification products across all the genotypes, out of which 164 (66%) fragments were polymorphic revealing a high level of polymorphism among these genotypes. The proportion of common bands was low (34%). The size of the amplification products on agarose gels ranged between 0.5 and 10.0 kb. In 13 …

Global Patterns And Predictions Of Seafloor Biomass Using Random Forests, Chih-Lin Wei, Gilbert T. Rowe, Elva Escobar-Briones, Antje Boetius, Thomas Soltwedel, M. Julian Caley, Yousria Soliman, Falk Huettmann, Fangyuan Qu, Zishan Yu, C. Roland Pitcher, Richard L. Haedrich, Mary K. Wicksten, Michael A. Rex, Jeffrey G. Baguley, Jyotsna Sharma, Roberto Danovaro, Ian R. Macdonald, Clifton C. Nunnally, Jody W. Deming, Paul Montagna, Mélanie Lévesque, Jan Marcin Weslawski, Maria Wlodarska-Kowalczuk, Baban S. Ingole, Brian J. Bett, David S. M. Billett, Andrew Yool, Bodil A. Bluhm, Katrin Iken, Bhavani E. Narayanaswamy

Biology Faculty Publication Series

A comprehensive seafloor biomass and abundance database has been constructed from 24 oceanographic institutions worldwide within the Census of Marine Life (CoML) field projects. The machine-learning algorithm, Random Forests, was employed to model and predict seafloor standing stocks from surface primary production, water-column integrated and export particulate organic matter (POM), seafloor relief, and bottom water properties. The predictive models explain 63% to 88% of stock variance among the major size groups. Individual and composite maps of predicted global seafloor biomass and abundance are generated for bacteria, meiofauna, macrofauna, and megafauna (invertebrates and fishes). Patterns of benthic standing stocks were positive …

Tactical Research Fund - Australian Society For Fish Biology Workshop Proceedings 2009: Biodiversity Of Aquatic Ecosystems – What To Measure And Monitor For Fisheries And Ecosystem Management - Frdc Project No. 2008/353 - Fisheries Occasional Publication No. 82, Daniel J. Gaughan

Fisheries Occasional Publications

No abstract provided.

Foundational Checklist Of The Amphibians Of Wise County, Virginia, Sarah R.A. Davidson, David L. Chambers

Virginia Journal of Science

The Appalachian Mountains are arguably home to the highest degree of amphibian diversity in the world, particularly caudate (salamander) biodiversity. Despite the high degree of amphibian endemism in the Appalachians, several regions remain unsurveyed for amphibian species. In addition to this knowledge gap, we are in the midst of alarming amphibian biodiversity loss. Thus, it is of the utmost importance to bridge this knowledge gap by conducting surveys before some of these amphibian species are lost. We surveyed Wise County (previously unsurveyed county in the Appalachian Mountains with no records existing in the primary literature) over two years to assess …

The Biogeochemistry Of Submerged Coastal Karst Features In West Central Florida, Keith Michael Garman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

West Central Florida is a complex karst environment with numerous sinkholes, springs, and submerged cave systems. Many of these karst features are anchialine, located within the subterranean estuary where freshwater and saltwater mix. Water quality data and/or fauna data were obtained from twenty-one karst features and their associated cave systems. The anchialine karst environment of the study area has a wide range of habitats with measured salinities ranging from freshwater at <0.2 ppt to sulfidic, hypersaline water at 38.5 ppt and measured pH readings ranging from 6.39 in water impacted by sulfur oxidizing bacteria to 10.3 in an isolated room of a cave. Stygobitic crustaceans were identified in conduits extending beneath the Gulf of Mexico supporting the hypotheses that freshwater crustaceans could survive higher sea levels in freshwater conduits beneath saltwater. The fauna associated with the anchialine cave systems included Sabellidae and Polychaeta worms, hydroids, cnidarians and hydrobiid snails. Jewfish Sink, like other anaerobic marine basins that were submarine springs, has four zones: oxic zone, transition zone, upper anoxic zone and anoxic bottom water. The upper zones have seasonal water quality variations from winter cooling and sinking of surface water and changes in the microbial communities. Activity of sulfate reducing bacteria is carbon limited in the anoxic zones, where sulfate reduction is the major metabolic process, and primary production is phosphate limited in the oxic zones. Organic input from the Gulf of Mexico drives the bacterial anaerobic ecosystem, resulting in a “sulfide pump”, in which sulfide percolates upward removing oxygen from the overlying sediment.

Bats Of The Grenadine Islands, West Indies, And Placement Of Koopman's Line, Hugh H. Genoways, Gary G. Kwiecinski, Peter A. Larsen, Scott C. Pedersen, Roxanne J. Larsen, Justin D. Hoffman, Mark De Silva, Carleton J. Phillips, Robert J. Baker

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

Almost nothing is known concerning the chiropteran fauna on the Grenadine Islands, a chain of islands between St. Vincent and Grenada located near the southern end of the Lesser Antilles. Previously, only a single species—Glossophaga longirostris—had been reported from the Grenadines. Our research, conducted on 4 occasions over the period of 1980 to 2006, provided museum vouchers and genetic specimens for the addition of 4 other species to the known fauna of these islands—Noctilio leporinus, Artibeus lituratus, Artibeus schwartzi, and Molossus molossus. The Grenadines, being situated between St. Vincent and Grenada, occupy an important zoogeographic position. …

Negative Plant–Soil Feedback Predicts Tree-Species Relative Abundance In A Tropical Forest, Scott A. Mangan, Stefan A. Schnitzer, Edward A. Herre, Keenan M.L. Mack, Mariana C. Valencia, Evelyn I. Sanchez, James D. Bever

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

The accumulation of species-specific enemies around adults is hypothesized to maintain plant diversity by limiting the recruitment of conspecific seedlings relative to heterospecific seedlings^1,2,3,4,5,6. Although previous studies in forested ecosystems have documented patterns consistent with the process of negative feedback^{7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16}, these studies are unable to address which classes of enemies (for example, pathogens, invertebrates, mammals) exhibit species-specific effects strong enough to generate negative feedback¹⁷, and whether …

Slides: Grazing On The Public Lands, William G. Myers Iii

The Past, Present, and Future of Our Public Lands: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Public Land Law Review Commission’s Report, One Third of the Nation’s Land (Martz Summer Conference, June 2-4)

Presenter: William G. Myers III, Partner, Holland & Hart; former Solicitor of the U.S. Department of the Interior (Boise, ID)

8 slides

Seasonal Patterns Of Arthropod Diversity And Abundance On Big Sagebrush, Artemisia Tridentata, Monte P. Sanford, Nancy J. Huntly

Biology Faculty Publications

The sagebrush biotype is the largest in the western United States. This vast sagebrush community is thought to harbor equally vast and diverse arthropod communities, but these remain little explored. Our objective was to examine the diversity, abundance, and seasonal phenology of arthropod taxa found on the dominant shrub of the sagebrush ecosystem, big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata). We wanted to improve understanding of this little-studied arthropod assemblage that may play significant roles in the dynamics of sagebrush populations and the sagebrush ecosystem. We sampled free-living and gall-forming arthropods from a stratified random sample of sagebrush plants at the …

The Loss Of Species: Mangrove Extinction Risk And Geographic Areas Of Global Concern, Beth A. Polidoro, Kent E. Carpenter, Lorna Collins, Norman C. Duke, Aaron M. Ellison, Joanna C. Ellison, Elizabeth J. Farnsworth, Edwino S. Fernando, Kandasamy Kathiresan, Nico E. Koedam, Suzanne R. Livingstone, Toyohiko Miyagi, Gregg E. Moore, Vien Ngoc Nam, Jin Eong Ong, Jurgenne H. Primavera, Serverino G. Salmo, Jonnell C. Sanciango, Sukristijono Sukardjo, Yamin Wang, Jean Wan Hong Yong

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Mangrove species are uniquely adapted to tropical and subtropical coasts, and although relatively low in number of species, mangrove forests provide at least US $1.6 billion each year in ecosystem services and support coastal livelihoods worldwide. Globally, mangrove areas are declining rapidly as they are cleared for coastal development and aquaculture and logged for timber and fuel production. Little is known about the effects of mangrove area loss on individual mangrove species and local or regional populations. To address this gap, species-specific information on global distribution, population status, life history traits, and major threats were compiled for each of the …

Diversity Of Bacteria And Glycosyl Hydrolase Family 48 Genes In Cellulolytic Consortia Enriched From Thermophilic Biocompost, Javier A. Izquierdo, Maria V. Sizova, Lee R. Lynd

Dartmouth Scholarship

The enrichment from nature of novel microbial communities with high cellulolytic activity is useful in the identification of novel organisms and novel functions that enhance the fundamental understanding of microbial cellulose degradation. In this work we identify predominant organisms in three cellulolytic enrichment cultures with thermophilic compost as an inoculum. Community structure based on 16S rRNA gene clone libraries featured extensive representation of clostridia from cluster III, with one cluster sharing as little as 73% sequence similarity with the closest known relative. In all, 14 new GHF48 gene sequences were added to the known diversity of 35 genes from cultured …

On The Physical Geography Of The Malay Archipelago (1863), Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace Classic Writings

No abstract provided.

Diversity And Distribution Of The Scarab Beetle Tribe Phanaeini In The Northern States Of The Brazilian Northeast (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae), Conrad P. D. T. Gillett, Michael P. T. Gillett, James E. D. T. Gillett, Fernando Z. Vaz-De-Mello

Insecta Mundi

The fauna of Phanaeini of the northeast of Brazil was investigated through fieldwork in the States of Ceará, Maranhão and Piauí, and through study of preserved material from other states. Seven species of Phanaeini are newly recorded from these three states. Of these, two species are also new records for the northeast region: Phanaeus melibaeus Blanchard and an unidentified Dendropaemon Perty species. A total of 13 new state records are given for eight of the 15 species of Phanaeini recorded from the northeast to date, including three new state genus records. A key is provided for identification of all species. …