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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Restoration Strategies For Wetlands In The Arid West: Seeding And Planting Approaches For Lakeshore Ecosystems, Jes Braun Dec 2023

Restoration Strategies For Wetlands In The Arid West: Seeding And Planting Approaches For Lakeshore Ecosystems, Jes Braun

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Wetlands are widely recognized for their valuable benefits such as providing habitat, improving water quality, and reducing the impacts of flooding. However, wetlands face threats from development, drought, and invasive species. This is particularly apparent in the arid west, where upstream water use and drought make water scarcer and contribute to dramatically changing water levels. Here, I investigated revegetation techniques for lakeshore wetlands, using Utah Lake as a case study. Although recent management efforts have minimized invasive Phragmites cover, the desired plant communities are not returning as quickly as needed, highlighting the need to research restoration techniques. Through my research, …

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Species Richness Of Moths In Parks Surrounded By Varying Levels Of ​Urbanization Around Nashville, Tennessee, Maxwell Stone, Allie Bennett Nov 2023

Species Richness Of Moths In Parks Surrounded By Varying Levels Of ​Urbanization Around Nashville, Tennessee, Maxwell Stone, Allie Bennett

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

Moths can act as indicators of environmental wellness due to their pollution sensitivity and the complexity of biodiversity required to support their life cycles. Urbanization can impact the occurrence of moths in protected green spaces. Higher moth species richness was hypothesized to occur in parks surrounded by more rural areas. Three metropolitan parks were chosen in the Nashville area: downtown, within a suburban neighborhood, and in a rural area. Tree canopy cover and degree of impervious surfaces were assessed for each park and surrounding area using iTreeCanopy. Moths were attracted to a white sheet using a mercury vapor bulb, UV …

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U.S. History, Science History, Women Scientists, History Of Entomology, Mentoring, Gender In Science, Nature Studies, Ecology, Cornell University, History Of Higher Education, Pat Munday Oct 2023

U.S. History, Science History, Women Scientists, History Of Entomology, Mentoring, Gender In Science, Nature Studies, Ecology, Cornell University, History Of Higher Education, Pat Munday

Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Articles

James G. Needham (1868-1958) was a professor of entomology at Cornell University from 1906 to 1936, and an active emeritus for about ten years thereafter. As a professor, mentored many women graduate students at Cornell, a group that included twenty-nine who took doctorates. As a scientist, he was a member of an extensive network that included many more women entomologists. These women were located throughout the United States and Canada. Some had been his students at Cornell, some were colleagues with whom he did fieldwork, and others were young women who, even though students at colleges other than Cornell, worked …

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The Deep Ecology Movement Sep 2023

The Deep Ecology Movement

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

There are two great streams of environmentalism in the latter half of the twentieth century. One stream is reformist, attempting to control some of the worst of the air and water pollution and inefficient land use practices in industrialized nations and to save a few of the remaining pieces of wildlands as "designated wilderness areas." The other stream supports many of the reformist goals but is revolutionary, seeking a new metaphysics, epistemology, cosmology, and environmental ethics of person/planet. This paper is an intellectual archeology of the second of these streams of environmentalism, which I will call deep ecology.

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Do Talus Slopes Provide Hibernacula Resources For Bats In Maine? Site Charecteristics Associated With Winter Occupancy And Sampling Design, Christopher C. Heilakka Aug 2023

Do Talus Slopes Provide Hibernacula Resources For Bats In Maine? Site Charecteristics Associated With Winter Occupancy And Sampling Design, Christopher C. Heilakka

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Maine, the decline of cave dwelling bats has been caused by the fungal disease commonly known as white-nose syndrome discovered in 2006. Northern long-eared bats (Myotis septentrionalis), little brown (Myotis lucifigus) andeastern tricolored bats (Perimyotis subflavus) have experienced 95% or greater population declines, and eastern small-footed (Myotis leibii) and big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) have also declined. In Maine, talus slopes, or piles of sloped rocks found at the base of cliffs, are widely distributed and past research has suggested talus as a potentially important, but previously unrecognized, class …

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The Interaction Between Predation And Sound Pollution On The Internal And External Microbiome Of The Grasshoppers Melanopus Sanguinipes, Alanna Bond Aug 2023

The Interaction Between Predation And Sound Pollution On The Internal And External Microbiome Of The Grasshoppers Melanopus Sanguinipes, Alanna Bond

Theses and Dissertations

Anthropogenic activities such as construction and agriculture directly affect its surrounding environments. Many studies have focused on how megafauna and flora are impacted by human activities, however, relatively little is known how new occupation of land affects smaller organisms such as insects and microbes. Additionally, other stressors such as predation can impact host physiology. The grasshopper species Melanopussanguinipes was chosen to be used in a study to measure how stress caused by artificial sound and predation can alter exoskeleton and gut microbiomes once exposed to these stressors.

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Patterns And Drivers Of Wiregrass Gap Longleaf Pine (Pinus Palustris Mill.) Woodland Succession As Part Of Restoration Efforts, Armin Weise Aug 2023

Patterns And Drivers Of Wiregrass Gap Longleaf Pine (Pinus Palustris Mill.) Woodland Succession As Part Of Restoration Efforts, Armin Weise

All Theses

Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris) communities are widespread throughout the Southeastern United States with a dominant understory vegetation of wiregrass (Aristida spp.) in most of its range. A small area in central South Carolina that is naturally free of wiregrass is called the “Wiregrass Gap”. Here, the understory vegetation is dominated by bluestems grasses (Andropogon spp. and Schizachyrium spp.) which drive the disturbance regime of frequent low-intensity fire. The successful establishment of these grasses is key for longleaf pine woodland restoration efforts in this region, but few resources detail the ecological drivers at play that enable successful restoration in these longleaf …

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Role Of The Grassland Society Of Bosnia And Herzegovina In Grassland Agriculture, S. Alibegovic-Gbic, M. Bezdrob Jul 2023

Role Of The Grassland Society Of Bosnia And Herzegovina In Grassland Agriculture, S. Alibegovic-Gbic, M. Bezdrob

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

The biggest part of Bosnia and Herzegovina is covered with hilly and mountainous terrain, which, from the agricultural perspective, determines the manner of soil usage. Of all agricultural areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 55.49% are covered by grassland with that figure increasing to 79.14% in mountainous regions. Therefore, grassland agriculture and its cousin livestock production are the most significant part of the Bosnian economy. In the current situation natural grasslands are largely neglected and give a low yield of forage of low quality. Many areas are completely abandoned and have been gradually overgrown with weeds and bushes. Yet a special …

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An Ecological Survey Of East Texas Salamanders Across The Camp Tyler Outdoor Field School In Smith County, Texas, Justin C. Hunt Jul 2023

An Ecological Survey Of East Texas Salamanders Across The Camp Tyler Outdoor Field School In Smith County, Texas, Justin C. Hunt

Biology Theses

Amphibians are a unique class of organisms with a very long and storied evolutionary history of survival. Many modern amphibian clades occupy several vital ecological roles within their native freshwater environments. One of these roles, typically includes functioning as an ecological indicator species, whereby the presence of stable and diverse populations of many amphibian species, including salamanders, within a freshwater ecosystem have long been considered ecological indicators of good habitat quality and stable ecosystem health. Similarly, salamanders also function as important members of their local food webs and act as valuable mediators of complex trophic hierarchies to facilitate nutrient cycling …

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Monitoring The Effects Of Poultry Waste On Fishes And Macroinvertebrates In The Sabine River, Karley R. Parker Jul 2023

Monitoring The Effects Of Poultry Waste On Fishes And Macroinvertebrates In The Sabine River, Karley R. Parker

Biology Theses

Freshwater is a vital resource that provides life and sustainability for almost all organisms on Earth. It is important to maintain its health and protect it from emerging pollutants that pose a threat to the organisms that use it. Pollution continues to threaten the well-being of the environment’s freshwater sources all around the world that could lead to damaging effects in the future. The Sabine River is a major freshwater resource in the east Texas and western Louisiana areas that provides a habitat for thousands of organisms as well as other domestic uses for humans. In 2019, a waste discharge …

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A Foundational Population Genetics Investigation Of The Sexual Systems Of Solanum (Solanaceae) In The Australian Monsoon Tropics Suggests Dioecious Taxa May Benefit From Increased Genetic Admixture Via Obligate Outcrossing, Jason T. Cantley, Ingrid E. Jordon-Thaden, Morgan Roche, Daniel S. Hayes, Stephamie Kate, Christopher T. Martine May 2023

A Foundational Population Genetics Investigation Of The Sexual Systems Of Solanum (Solanaceae) In The Australian Monsoon Tropics Suggests Dioecious Taxa May Benefit From Increased Genetic Admixture Via Obligate Outcrossing, Jason T. Cantley, Ingrid E. Jordon-Thaden, Morgan Roche, Daniel S. Hayes, Stephamie Kate, Christopher T. Martine

Faculty Journal Articles

Solanum section Leptostemonum is an ideal lineage to test the theoretical framework regarding proposed evolutionary benefits of outcrossing sexual systems in comparison to cosexuality. Theoretically, non-cosexual taxa should support more genetic diversity within populations, experience less inbreeding, and have less genetic structure due to a restricted ability to self-fertilize. However, many confounding factors present challenges for a confident inference that inherent differences in sexual systems influence observed genetic patterns among populations. This study provides a foundational baseline of the population genetics of several species of different sexual systems with the aim of generating hypotheses of any factor—including sexual system—that influences …

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Exploration Of Differential Equation Models For Phage-Bacteria Population Dynamics, John Lawrence D. Palacios, Rebecca Segal May 2023

Exploration Of Differential Equation Models For Phage-Bacteria Population Dynamics, John Lawrence D. Palacios, Rebecca Segal

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

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Identifiability Analysis Applied To Rhizbium-Legume Symbiosis Model, Meghan Peltier May 2023

Identifiability Analysis Applied To Rhizbium-Legume Symbiosis Model, Meghan Peltier

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

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Mathematics Of Population-Genetics Model For Assessing The Impacts Of Insecticide Resistance And Temperature On Population Abundance Of Malaria Mosquitoes, Jemal Mohammed-Awel May 2023

Mathematics Of Population-Genetics Model For Assessing The Impacts Of Insecticide Resistance And Temperature On Population Abundance Of Malaria Mosquitoes, Jemal Mohammed-Awel

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

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Exploring The Dynamics Of Bacterial Populations In The Gut Microbiota, Shaikh Obaidullah May 2023

Exploring The Dynamics Of Bacterial Populations In The Gut Microbiota, Shaikh Obaidullah

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

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Simulation And Latin Hypercube Sampling Of Mixed-Time Models In A Consumer-Resource Relationship, Boluwatife E. Awoyemi, Amanda N. Laubmeier, Richard L. Rebarber May 2023

Simulation And Latin Hypercube Sampling Of Mixed-Time Models In A Consumer-Resource Relationship, Boluwatife E. Awoyemi, Amanda N. Laubmeier, Richard L. Rebarber

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

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Eco-Interoception: What Plants, Fungi And Protista Have Taught My Body, Sara Riley Dotterer May 2023

Eco-Interoception: What Plants, Fungi And Protista Have Taught My Body, Sara Riley Dotterer

Art Theses and Dissertations

To me, ecology is the relational, full-body awareness that I am made up of and deeply connected to everything around me; and for better or worse, this is reciprocal. I form ecotones, an ecological transitional zone between two ecosystems, with the world around me. I use this ecotonal lens to blur binaries and dissolve boundaries between me and the world “outside my body.” During my Masters of Fine Arts at Southern Methodist University, I have continuously explored and represented the lives of various more-than-human species outside of my body, including plants, fungi and protista through an ecotonal lens. Although these …

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Connecting Social And Ecological Systems In Small-Scale Fisheries In The Philippines, Sara Eisler Marriott May 2023

Connecting Social And Ecological Systems In Small-Scale Fisheries In The Philippines, Sara Eisler Marriott

Dissertations

Nearly 50% of all marine fish capture in the Philippines is from artisanal fisheries, most of which is un- or under-reported. As in many emerging nations around the world, the Philippines cannot fully address overfishing by managing only half of the catch that comes from commercial fisheries. Marine reserves are a popular governance strategy for conservation and of growing interest for fisheries management. Many marine reserves in the Philippines, however, are not considered effective. In 2014, Rare, an international NGO, implemented a community-based management program to increase the effectiveness of the marine reserves, and while it found biomass increased, there …

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Density And Nest Success Of Shrub-Dependent Birds On Formerly Strip-Mined Lands, Luke Headings May 2023

Density And Nest Success Of Shrub-Dependent Birds On Formerly Strip-Mined Lands, Luke Headings

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

As bird populations continue to decline across North America, it is important to understand the benefits that disturbed habitats can have for breeding birds. One of the major land disturbances and causes of habitat loss in the United States is surface mining, which often results in altered vegetative communities. The primary goal of this study was to evaluate the relationships between bird populations, habitat, previous and current land use, and densities of invasive plant species on formerly strip-mined land. Due to the proliferation of invasive shrub species in post-mined landscapes, we sought to determine the effects of post-mined habitat features …

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Smile For The Camera: Patterns Of Mammal Abundance In Great Hill Forest Through Four Years Of Camera Trapping, Alexander Gonatas May 2023

Smile For The Camera: Patterns Of Mammal Abundance In Great Hill Forest Through Four Years Of Camera Trapping, Alexander Gonatas

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Snapshot USA is a nationwide camera trapping project aiming to determine biodiversity and abundance of animal populations across all 50 states. Since 2019, participants have used camera traps to document wildlife every September and October, coinciding with animal activity patterns and North American academic year starts. Understanding biodiversity through long-term monitoring is an important topic to study, because the knowledge obtained can help track populations and better understand wildlife responses to disturbances. Since Snapshot USA participants use the same methods and trapping season, the information we collect can be directly compared to other Snapshot USA locations. At Great Hill Forest …

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The Effect Of Algal Wastewater Treatment Systems On Microbial Communities, Alexis Leach May 2023

The Effect Of Algal Wastewater Treatment Systems On Microbial Communities, Alexis Leach

University Honors Program Senior Projects

In collaboration with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago and Gross-Wen Technologies, I examined the microbial communities in experimental tertiary wastewater treatment systems employing algal phytoremediation. Three algal phytoremediation systems were examined: two vertical conveyor belt systems, known as the 10-foot belt system and the series 4 system, and a third system lacking a converter belt in which planktonic algae grew in a control pond. I used EcoPlates to measure carbon substrate utilization by microorganisms in each system. EcoPlates contain thirty-one different carbon substrates, with a dye that indicates microbial use of each substrate. I conducted a Principal …

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The Effects Of Habitat Isolation On Fine-Scale Genetic And Geographic Structure Of Populations Of Two Threatened Endemic Insects In Southern Nevada, Pseudocotalpa Giulianii And Icaricia Shasta Charlestonensis, Kristen Tovar May 2023

The Effects Of Habitat Isolation On Fine-Scale Genetic And Geographic Structure Of Populations Of Two Threatened Endemic Insects In Southern Nevada, Pseudocotalpa Giulianii And Icaricia Shasta Charlestonensis, Kristen Tovar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Assessing the role geographic isolation and ecological specialization have on phylogeographic patterns contributes to our understanding of the evolutionary history of a species and the processes that erode genetic diversity. I used mitochondrial and nuclear genomic sequences to assess whether habitat isolation has shaped the fine-scale patterns of present-day genetic structure and diversity in two threatened insect species endemic to southern Nevada. Pseudocotalpa giulianii (Coleoptera; Scarabaeidae) is a dune obligate scarab beetle endemic to only two small, isolated sand dunes in Nye County, Nevada, with a usable habitat of less than 4.2 km sq that is impacted by on-going degradation. …

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Consequences Of Host Life Cycles For Symbiont Genome Evolution, Ashley Elizabeth Dederich May 2023

Consequences Of Host Life Cycles For Symbiont Genome Evolution, Ashley Elizabeth Dederich

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Aphids are small insects that feed exclusively on plant sap, a notoriously low source of nutrients due to the high sugar content and low amino acid content. To make up for these deficiencies in nutrition, aphids harbor Buchnera aphidicola, a bacterial endosymbiont that resides in a specialized organ called the bacteriome. B. aphidicola provides essential amino acids and vitamins for the aphid in exchange for a safe place to live. Over the course of the symbiosis (established 160 million years ago), B. aphidicola has lost much of its genome, including essential genes for cell envelope synthesis, DNA replication and …

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Growth, Mortality, And Movement Of Endemic Bartram's Bass And Invasive Alabama Bass In Upper Savannah River Basin Tributaries, Tyler Zumwalt May 2023

Growth, Mortality, And Movement Of Endemic Bartram's Bass And Invasive Alabama Bass In Upper Savannah River Basin Tributaries, Tyler Zumwalt

All Theses

Bartram’s Bass are an endemic to the Upper Savannah River basin in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Bartram’s Bass are facing many risks, primary among them being hybridization with nonnative Alabama Bass. More recently, nonnative Alabama Bass and their hybrid congeners have been observed moving from reservoirs into tributaries where the remaining Bartram’s Bass populations exist. Thus, for Chapter 1 we sought to better understand the threat of nonnative gene spreading in tributary systems. To do this, we 1) quantified the movement of pure Alabama Bass, Bartram’s Bass, and their hybrids, 2) assessed correlations between movement and abiotic variables, …

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Drivers Of White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus Virginianus) Behavior, Survival, And Population Growth In The Piedmont Of South Carolina, Michael Muthersbaugh May 2023

Drivers Of White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus Virginianus) Behavior, Survival, And Population Growth In The Piedmont Of South Carolina, Michael Muthersbaugh

All Dissertations

Prey species adjust behaviors in response to various stimuli, responding to both top-down and bottom-up pressures. Large herbivores must attempt to avoid predation either through adjusting behaviors or seeking spatial or temporal refugia, which can scale up to influence individual fitness and ultimately population dynamics. Specifically, predation risk has a great potential to influence ungulate populations by impacting behaviors and survival. Our objective was to quantify ungulate behavioral and population response to a regionally important predator through a case study – white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) responses to coyotes (Canis latrans) on private lands in the Piedmont …

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Are Fungal Endophytes Of Fire Adapted Plants Also Fire Adapted?, Alexander C. Dowd May 2023

Are Fungal Endophytes Of Fire Adapted Plants Also Fire Adapted?, Alexander C. Dowd

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

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Parasite Communities In Sunfish (Centrarchidae) From The Olentangy River, Sophia Holupka Apr 2023

Parasite Communities In Sunfish (Centrarchidae) From The Olentangy River, Sophia Holupka

Student Symposium

Parasites are common in freshwater fishes, and sunfish (Family Centrarchidae) in particular have been found to have diverse parasite communities in North America. We have been studying parasite communities that are found in sunfish (Family Centrarchidae) in three different localities (Delaware Run, River Run Park, and William Street Bridge) along the Olentangy River in Delaware, Ohio. The presence of multiple species of sunfish in the Delaware Run and nearby Olentangy River has given us an opportunity to compare parasites among them. A total of 212 fish were collected August 2022 through April 2023 and examined for parasites. We found a …

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Lesson Plans In Astronomy, Ecology And Biology, Admin Stem For Success Apr 2023

Lesson Plans In Astronomy, Ecology And Biology, Admin Stem For Success

STEM for Success Showcase

This document contains various lesson plan ideas for concepts within the fields of biology, ecology, astronomy, and geology.

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Water Pollution And Ecology, Admin Stem For Success, Natalie Wilson Apr 2023

Water Pollution And Ecology, Admin Stem For Success, Natalie Wilson

STEM for Success Showcase

Research activity to teach students about water pollution

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Evaluation Of Reproductive Phenology, Space Use, And Ecology Of The Eastern Wild Turkey (Meleagris Gallopavo Silvestris) In West-Central Louisiana, Chad Argabright Apr 2023

Evaluation Of Reproductive Phenology, Space Use, And Ecology Of The Eastern Wild Turkey (Meleagris Gallopavo Silvestris) In West-Central Louisiana, Chad Argabright

LSU Master's Theses

Nest site selection is a driving demographic force behind eastern wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) populations. However, previous research was likely not focused on the actual time of nest site selection, considering that nest site selection is likely only able to occur on the day of the first egg being laid. My objective was to determine if selection for any vegetation characteristics was occurring on the first day of laying. I estimated the path taken from the roost to the nest on the first day of egg laying (i.e., laying path) using GPS data collected from 164 unique …

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