Life Sciences Commons^™

Growth And Survival Of Amphibians Exposed To Road Salt And Glyphosate-Based Herbicide, Jerica Eaton

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Amphibian populations are threatened by increasing levels of environmental pollution resulting from human activities. Areas with mixed land use that include agriculture and urban development experience increased contamination from surface herbicide and road deicer application. Upon entering water sources, these chemicals have the capacity to disrupt the natural dynamics of aquatic ecosystems. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of these contaminants on amphibian populations. I used the spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) as a model, rearing larvae from hatching to metamorphosis. I subjected larvae in each of the treatment groups to varying levels of herbicide and salt concentrations. …

Duckweed In Wastewater Management: Species Comparison Of Spirodela Polyrhiza And Lemna Minuta, Lindsey Chepalonis

Student Research Poster Presentations 2023

Wastewater is any liquid or water-carried waste accrued from sanitary operations. This waste contains toxins that must be purified, as they pose an environmental and public health hazard. Specifically, this risk is high in developing countries. Aquatic plants can be used to purify wastewater. Duckweed is a free-floating aquatic plant with over 37 species, but Lemna minor is typically used for wastewater management. This research focuses on finding different species to use in wastewater management. Spirodela polyrhiza and Lemna minuta chlorophyll concentration and frond increase were compared with Lemna minor. The species were maintained in varying concentrations of Hoagland’s solution …

Evaluation Of Plaster Creek Stewards: Results And Recommendations From Surveys, Interviews, And Education Event Feedback Forms, Laura Luchies, Jax Heil, Taylor E. Hartson

Watershed Reports

No abstract provided.

A Gis Look At Woody Plant Encroachment (Wpe): Mapping Grassland Degradation Through Habitat Succession, Brandon M. Wolf

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The grasslands of North America remain at a fraction of their historic range. Estimates of acreage remaining vary between 4% and 13%. Affectionately known as the Great Plains, these grasslands have been converted for agriculture, rangeland, infrastructure, and civilization itself. Woody Plant Encroachment (WPE) on the grasslands is a silent, often overlooked, serious threat. The use of a simple GIS can estimate current acreage of a grassland, its adjacent woodland corridor, riparian buffers, and predict future acreage based on trends and hypothetical management scenarios, or lack thereof. The American prairie, though a remnant of its former self, is still home …

Characterization Of The Mycobiome Of Rafflesia Seeds: Their Potential Ecological Roles And Applications In Rafflesia Propagation And Conservation, Feruza Karnitskiy

Selected Full-Text Master Theses 2021-

The plant microbiome exerts a profound influence on plant health, growth, and life cycle. This ecosystem comprises diverse microbial communities, such as symbiotic endophytes, mycorrhizal fungi, epiphytes, saprophytes, rhizobia, and pathogens, which inhabit parasitic and non-parasitic plants. Rafflesia speciosa, a holoparasitic plant, is a unique and endangered species that depends on its host Tetrastigma spp. for survival. In this study, fungal metagenomics was conducted to characterize the fungal community—the mycobiome within Rafflesia seeds, and a phylogeny was reconstructed. The ecophysiological characteristics of these fungal genera were also researched in the literature, and their primary ecological trait, whether plant mutualist, saprotroph, …

Multi-Year Environmental Trends Of Shrimp Black Gill (Hyalophysa Lynni) Prevalence In Texas Gulf Coast Shrimp Populations, Jillian L. Swinford, Joel Anderson

Gulf and Caribbean Research

Shrimp Black Gill, caused by the apostome ciliate Hyalophysa lynni, is an emerging disease impacting penaeid shrimp populations along the southeast Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Changing annual environmental conditions may drive infection levels of this parasitic ciliate in these populations, which comprise one of the largest fisheries in the United States. Hyalophysa lynni is established on the Texas Gulf Coast, and prevalence of this parasite has a strong seasonal and spatial trend, likely linked with high temperature and a wide range of estuarine salinities. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department monitored shrimp black gill in 2 …

The Role Of Machine Learning And Network Analyses In Understanding Microbial Composition In An Experimental Prairie, Ali Eastman Oku

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Machine learning and network analyses are powerful modern tools can process and map out connections between large amount of ecological data from complex environmental communities. Random forests, an ensemble machine learning algorithm, are particularly powerful as they can capture complex patterns in data while remaining easily interpretable. These tools are specifically useful in experimental settings where different types of data are collected. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the utility of machine learning models and network analyses at analyzing diverse ecological data from dynamic plant-soil microbial communities in a prairie ecosystem. Our experimental system is an experimental prairie …

Porifera: Biology And Medicinal Properties, Emma L. Rayfield

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The focus of this thesis is the possibility of oceanic medicine through understanding the general biology of poriferans, their symbionts, medicinal properties, and how we could harvest sponges conservatively. It was necessary to understand the basic biology of poriferans regarding their structures, differences in their classes, and how they obtain nutrition, develop, and reproduce. The ecology of the poriferans was also researched including their larval and sessile stages and how their environment determines where they settle. Additionally, ecology was examined including how poriferans interact with symbionts and other organisms. This then was utilized to seek whether poriferans had useful medical …

Habitat Associations And Fine-Scale Movements Of The Red-Spotted Toad (Anaxyrus Punctatus) In Kansas And The Efficacy Of Remote Telemetry For Monitoring Small-Scale Movements, Elisabeth Russell

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

As climate change progresses, arid-adapted anurans might be particularly susceptible to population declines because of their reliance on ephemeral pools for successful reproduction. Because arid-adapted anurans are difficult to study due to short active seasons and cryptic lifestyles, little is known about their habitat preferences. One such arid-adapted species is the Red-Spotted Toad (Anaxyrus punctatus; RST), a Kansas Species in Need of Conservation. Since this designation in 1987, little research has been conducted to understand their conservation needs. During the summers of 2021 and 2022, RST surveys were conducted both near areas where the species has historically been …

Utilizing Markov Chains To Estimate Allele Progression Through Generations, Ronit Gandhi

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

All populations display patterns in allele frequencies over time. Some alleles cease to exist, while some grow to become the norm. These frequencies can shift or stay constant based on the conditions the population lives in. If in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, the allele frequencies stay constant. Most populations, however, have bias from environmental factors, sexual preferences, other organisms, etc. We propose a stochastic Markov chain model to study allele progression across generations. In such a model, the allele frequencies in the next generation depend only on the frequencies in the current one.

We use this model to track a recessive allele …

Hide And Seek: An Exploration Of Antipredator And Predator Avoidance Mechanisms In Orthopodomyia Signifera In Response To Predation From Toxorhynchites Rutilus, Nathaniel Dahlberg

Master's Theses

There have been many observations of larval Orthopodomyia signifera coexisting with the predator Toxorhynchites rutilus. There are three hypotheses that could explain how Or. signifera resists predation from Tx. rutilus. The first hypothesis states that larvae adapt behavioral changes that limit predation. The second hypothesis states thoracic setae serve as a physical defense that prevents Tx. rutilus from grasping Or. signifera. The third hypothesis states Or. signifera possess a chemical defense indicated by aposematic coloration. To test the first hypothesis larval Or. signifera were exposed to conspecific and heterospecific predation cues and their behavior was observed. Both cues …

To What Extent Do Non-Native Shrubs Support Higher Trophic Levels?, Ari Zakroff

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Invasive species threaten ecosystems and economies. Globally, biological invasions are estimated to have cost over $2.1 trillion since 1970. In Eastern North American woodlands, invasive plants are rapidly displacing natives. This is concerning, because invasive plants may not support the diverse and abundant arthropod communities essential to ecosystem function. Despite the conceptual understanding of invasive shrubs’ potential to transform forest communities, scant research has focused on the effect of invasive plants on higher trophic levels here in Ohio. To address this gap, I examined the diversity and abundance of arthropod communities, caterpillar performance, and caterpillar predation on two invasive shrubs, …

Land Systems, Soils And Vegetation Of The Southern Goldfields And Great Western Woodlands Of Western Australia - Volume 2, Peter-Jon A. Waddell, Paul Galloway

Technical Bulletins

This technical bulletin defines and maps the land resources of the southern Goldfields region of Western Australia (WA). The southern Goldfields region, as featured in this bulletin, covers 151,753 km². The western and eastern borders are variable because they align with various cadastral boundaries. The western survey border, which in part follows the WA State Barrier Fence, demarcates cleared agricultural land from the intact, western extent of the Great Western Woodlands. The eastern border abuts the westernmost Nullarbor pastoral lease boundaries, except for the north-easternmost and south-easternmost edges which continue into Crown land. Major towns are Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie …

The Effect Of Environmental Factors On Movement Patterns And Habitat Use Of Young-Of-The-Year Scalloped Hammerhead Sharks (Sphyrna Lewini) In The Tolomato River Nursery, Matthew Bernanke

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Various shark populations on the southeastern coast of the United States experienced declines in the late 20^th century, including the scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini). Improved management strategies, implemented in the late 1990s, have helped these populations to recover, but they are still under threat from fishing pressure and habitat loss. In continuing to strive towards population recovery and conservation, it is important to identify Essential Fish Habitat, or habitats that are necessary for the spawning, feeding, breeding, or growth of marine organisms. One such habitat is that of the shark nursery habitat. Nursery habitats are those …

Corrigendum: Evolution, Ecology, And Zoonotic Transmission Of Betacoronaviruses: A Review, Herbert F. Jelinek, Mira Mousa, Eman Alefishat, Wael Osman, Ian Spence, Dengpan Bu, Samuel F. Feng, Jason Byrd, Paola A. Magni, Shafi Sahibzada, Guan K. Tay, Habiba S. Alsafar

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In the published article, there was an error in the legend for Figure 1 as published. The figure legend did not indicate that it has been adapted from Plowright et al. (2017). Copyright permission was obtained from Springer Nature to adapt Figure 1 from Plowright et al. (2017). The corrected legend appears below. Figure 1. Zoonotic risk distribution, pathway to spillover, and the multimodal role of the determinants of spillover. The zoonotic risk is demonstrated by the accumulated distribution of reservoir hosts and vectors that play a role in the pathway to spillover. The risk of spillover is determined by …

New Records Of Gastropods (Caenogastropoda And Heterobranchia) From The Turkish Coasts With Observations On Some Poorly Known Species, Bi̇lal Öztürk, Nesli̇han Türkçü, Banu Bi̇tli̇s

Turkish Journal of Zoology

This work presents information about 19 taxa recorded from different habitats at depths between 0.2 and 508 m in the last two decades, which are new records or poorly known species along the Turkish coasts. Among the identified species, Epitonium vaillanti, Melanella cf. lubrica, Melanella monterosatoi, Pelseneeria minor, Setia amabilis, Kurtziella serga, Rissoella diaphana, Rissoella inflata, and Spirolaxis clenchi are new records for the Turkish mollusc fauna, Eatonina pumila is new report for the Turkish coast of the Aegean Sea, and Eatonina ochroleuca, Acirsa subdecussata, Lamellaria latens, Setia pulcherrima, Setia valvatoides, and Turbonilla cangeyrani are species with rare distribution …

Assessing Forest Features And Nocturnal Flying Insect Diversity As Predictors Of Eastern Whip-Poor-Will Occupancy In Foraging Habitat, Clark D. Alexander

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Eastern whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vociferus), an insectivorous caprimulgid, have seen an approximate 2.76% annual population decrease since the 1960s, with their breeding and foraging ecology largely unknown due to their nocturnal and cryptic behavior. I conducted research to assess abiotic and biotic variables correlated with detection, and occupancy probability, and prey species diversity on ~104,000 hectares of forest in West Virginia, owned by the private timber company Weyerhaeuser. Previous literature indicates that Eastern whip-poor-will, and their prey, require ephemeral habitat such as recently cleared and early successional forests, like those historically created by forest fires, wind shears, hurricanes, and …

A Return To The Staging Grounds: Reassessment Of Aleutian Cackling Goose Spring Distribution In North Humboldt Bay, Shaun W. Thornton

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

After a 15-year interval in research, spatial and temporal patterns of the Aleutian cackling goose during spring staging was assessed again in 2022. During my study, 3,389 goose flocks were recorded in Arcata Bottoms staging site, 1 January to 21 April 2022, amounting to an estimated total of 2,248,512 goosedays, which was 336.8% higher than 2007 estimates of 667,485 goosedays. Geese continued to use pastures with a wide range of landscape characteristics primarily represented by livestock grazing practices. Goose use was greater than availability on beef-cattle fields early in the season and dairy-cow fields later in the season. Human disturbances …

Rapidly Changing Range Limits In A Warming World: Critical Data Limitations And Knowledge Gaps For Advancing Understanding Of Mangrove Range Dynamics In The Southeastern Usa, Rémi Bardou, Michael J. Osland, Steven Scyphers, Christine Shepard, Karen E. Aerni, Jahson B. Alemu I, Robert Crimian, Richard H. Day, Nicholas M. Enwright, Laura C. Feher, Sarah L. Gibbs, Kiera O'Donnell, Savannah H. Swinea, Kalaina Thorne, Sarit Truskey, Anna R. Armitage, Ronald Baker, Josh L. Breithaupt, Kyle C. Cavanaugh, Erik S. Yando, A. Randall Hughes, Et Al.

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Climate change is altering species’ range limits and transforming ecosystems. For example, warming temperatures are leading to the range expansion of tropical, cold-sensitive species at the expense of their cold-tolerant counterparts. In some temperate and subtropical coastal wetlands, warming winters are enabling mangrove forest encroachment into salt marsh, which is a major regime shift that has significant ecological and societal ramifications. Here, we synthesized existing data and expert knowledge to assess the distribution of mangroves near rapidly changing range limits in the southeastern USA. We used expert elicitation to identify data limitations and highlight knowledge gaps for advancing understanding of …

Differences In Drifting Invertebrate Communities Across Arctic Ecozones And The Influence On Potential Growth Of Grayling (Thymallus Arcticus), Charles Chanyi

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Invertebrate drift is a key process that potentially affects multiple levels of food web organization within stream environments. However, our understanding of the mechanistic drivers of drift in high latitude streams and subsequent bottom-up control that drift may have on fish predators in these environments remains understudied. This project aimed to gain the baseline knowledge of how drift functions across two major high latitude ecozones, the boreal forest and tundra, and how those possible differences in drifting community characteristics may impact drift-feeding Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus). These objectives were accomplished by characterizing stream environments across both ecozones, sampling …

Land Systems, Soils And Vegetation Of The Southern Goldfields And Great Western Woodlands Of Western Australia - Volume 1, Peter-Jon A. Waddell, Paul Galloway

Technical Bulletins

This technical bulletin defines and maps the land resources of the southern Goldfields region of Western Australia (WA). The southern Goldfields region, as featured in this bulletin, covers 151,753 km². The western and eastern borders are variable because they align with various cadastral boundaries. The western survey border, which in part follows the WA State Barrier Fence, demarcates cleared agricultural land from the intact, western extent of the Great Western Woodlands. The eastern border abuts the westernmost Nullarbor pastoral lease boundaries, except for the north-easternmost and south-easternmost edges which continue into Crown land. Major towns are Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie …

Levels Of Autotrophy And Heterotrophy In Mesophotic Corals Near The End Photic Zone, Amy Carmignani, Veronica Z. Radice, Kathryn M. Mcmahon, Alex I. Holman, Karen Miller, Kliti Grice, Zoe Richards

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Mesophotic corals live at ~30-150 m depth and can sustain metabolic processes under light-limited conditions by enhancing autotrophy through specialized photoadaptations or increasing heterotrophic nutrient acquisition. These acclimatory processes are often species-specific, however mesophotic ecosystems are largely unexplored and acclimation limits for most species are unknown. This study examined mesophotic coral ecosystems using a remotely operated vehicle (Ashmore Reef, Western Australia at 40–75m depth) to investigate the trophic ecology of five species of scleractinian coral (from genera Leptoseris, Pachyseris, and Craterastrea) using stable isotope analyses (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) of host and symbiont tissues …

The Importance Of Winter Dinoflagellate Blooms In Chesapeake Bay— A Missing Link In Bay Productivity, Nicole C. Millette, Sophie Clayton, Margaret R. Mulholland, Leah Gibala-Smith, Michael Lane

OES Faculty Publications

It is widely assumed that phytoplankton abundance and productivity decline during temperate winters because of low irradiance and temperatures. However, winter phytoplankton blooms commonly occur in temperate estuaries, but they are often undocumented because of reduced water quality monitoring in winter. The small body of in situ work that has been done on winter blooms suggests they can be of enormous consequence to ecosystems. However, because monitoring is often reduced or stopped altogether during winter, it is unclear how widespread these blooms are or how long they can last. We analyzed an over 30-year record of monthly phytoplankton monitoring samples …

Our Natural World, Jennifer Mattei

Biology Faculty Publications

It’s nothing earth-shattering to say our natural world gives us everything we need to survive, from the oxygen we breathe and the clean water we drink to that apple you are enjoying with your lunch today. We all know this. However, we sometimes fail to appreciate and act on the converse—if we fail to maintain a well-functioning and resilient natural world our future is literally at risk.

What’s more, our reliance on nature goes deeper than the base physical essentials of air, water and food that are required for life. Our bodies—physically, mentally and emotionally—are healthier for their interaction with …

Effect Of Canopy Competition On Tree Growth And Development In Pine Hardwood Mixtures, Jacob Alexander Olichney

LSU Master's Theses

Mixed species forests may benefit from the reduction in intraspecific competition, although the benefit of species mixing has been shown to vary depending on mixture composition and environmental conditions. This study sought to test the effect of species composition in mixed forest stands on canopy development and growth of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), cherrybark oak (Quercus pagoda), and sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua). Even-aged, grid planted monoculture and mixed species forest plots were established with hardwood monoculture plots at a 741 Trees Per Hectare (TPH), and pine monoculture and mixed species plots established at 1482 TPH. …

Ecology And Evolution Of Social Information Use, Clare T. M. Doherty

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Sociality is a strategy many animals employ to cope with their environments, enabling them to survive and reproduce more successfully than would otherwise be possible. When navigating their environments and making decisions, social individuals often use information provided by conspecifics (in the form of social cues and signals), thereby increasing the scope and reliability of the information they can gather. However, social information use may be influenced by many factors, including key differences in context across the physical and social environment. My thesis asks and answers a series of questions regarding the trade-offs in social information use across different contexts, …

Occurrence Of Kanamycin-Resistant Bacteria Relative To Anthropogenic Pollution Along Richland Creek In Nashville, Tn​, Jolene Ho Mach, Annie Le, Brandon Torres Ramirez

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

The overuse of antibiotics has caused an increase in antibiotic-resistant (AR) bacteria, which is a serious public health concern. Previous studies showed a significant correlation between anthropogenic pollution and AR bacteria. This project aims to identify AR bacteria in Richland Creek relative to local anthropogenic pollution. Water samples were collected at four locations along Richland Creek in Nashville, Tennessee. Bacteria resistant to the antibiotic kanamycin were isolated from the water samples, identified to genera using DNA barcoding, and compared among the sites. We expect to see a greater abundance and diversity of kanamycin-resistant bacteria closer to the end than near …

Niche Overlap In Sympatric Rocio (Teleostei: Cichlidae) Of Guatemala, Cesar Estuardo Fuentes Montejo

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Rocio is a small genus of Neotropical freshwater fishes that is distributed in Atlantic drainages of northern Middle America. Two species in the genus exhibit sympatry in the Río Dulce basin (in Izabal, Guatemala), where one species is endemic (R. spinosissima), while the other only includes this area as part of a larger geographic range (R. octofasciata). Unfortunately, the ecology of these species has been poorly studied. This study sought to determine the ecological and morphological differences between these two closely related sympatric freshwater fishes. We hypothesized that R. octofasciata would exhibit greater ecological and morphological …

A Study Of Red Snapper (Lutjanus Campechanus) Ecology In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico And The Effect Of Variable River Outflow Using Stable Isotope Analysis Of The Food Web And Eye Lenses, Caitlin C. Slife

Dissertations

In the Mississippi Bight and surrounding waters, river outflow impacts the basal resources of the Red Snapper food web, altering carbon sources and impacting prey and predator isotopes. In this study, the impact of riverine outflow on nutrients, particulate organic matter (POM), and physical water parameters on Red Snapper and their food web was analyzed using stable isotope and stomach content analysis over 5 years. The Mississippi, Pearl, Pascagoula, and Mobile rivers were included in the analysis of river impact. The Mississippi and Mobile rivers were found to significantly impact nutrients and POM in the region. River outflow was also …

Consequences Of Biofilm Architecture On Vibrio Cholerae Ecology And Life History, Benjamin Ray Wucher

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

The diversity of microbes and the environments they inhabit are staggering. In many of these environments, bacteria have evolved to form sessile surface attached communities called biofilms. These biofilms have wide reaching impacts from importance in global carbon cycling, to persistent catheter infections, to biofouling and wastewater treatment. While many species of microbes form biofilms to survive in their environment, the architectures of these structures vary widely between organisms. Even though a great deal of work has been done to understand bacterial communities and their functions, little work has examined how the spatial aspects of biofilm architecture can affect the …