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Full-Text Articles in Biodiversity

Rare Occurrences Of Free-Living Bacteria Belonging To Sedimenticola From Subtidal Seagrass Beds Associated With The Lucinid Clam, Stewartia Floridana, Aaron M. Goemann Dec 2015

Rare Occurrences Of Free-Living Bacteria Belonging To Sedimenticola From Subtidal Seagrass Beds Associated With The Lucinid Clam, Stewartia Floridana, Aaron M. Goemann

Masters Theses

Lucinid clams and their sulfur-oxidizing endosymbionts comprise two compartments of a three-stage, biogeochemical relationship among the clams, seagrasses, and microbial communities in marine sediments. A population of the lucinid clam, Stewartia floridana, was sampled from a subtidal seagrass bed at Bokeelia Island Seaport in Florida to test the hypotheses: (1) S. floridana, like other lucinids, are more abundant in seagrass beds than bare sediments; (2) S. floridana gill microbiomes are dominated by one bacterial operational taxonomic unit (OTU) at a sequence similarity threshold level of 97% (a common cutoff for species level taxonomy) from 16S rRNA genes; …


The Suitability Of Habitats And The Effects Of Human Activities In Osupuko And Olepolos Wildlife Sanctuaries On Maasai Giraffes, Sydney P. Davis May 2015

The Suitability Of Habitats And The Effects Of Human Activities In Osupuko And Olepolos Wildlife Sanctuaries On Maasai Giraffes, Sydney P. Davis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Habitat quality and resource availability within wildlife dispersal areas in the Amboseli ecosystem are experiencing degradation due to pastoralism and agriculture by humans, which negatively affects the wildlife species that utilize these dispersal areas. Maasai giraffes are a common species that utilize these areas, but information on how human activities and the presence of domestic livestock affects the Maasai giraffe is limited. This study was conducted in two wildlife sanctuaries: Osupuko and Olepolos. Habitat condition assessment was done to determine the quality of habitats found within each sanctuary. The Point-Centered Quadrat Method was used to determine the number of five …


A Systematic Review Of The Soricimorph Eulipotyphla (Soricidae: Mammalia) From The Gray Fossil Site (Hemphillian), Tennessee, Joshua Doby May 2015

A Systematic Review Of The Soricimorph Eulipotyphla (Soricidae: Mammalia) From The Gray Fossil Site (Hemphillian), Tennessee, Joshua Doby

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due in part to the incompleteness of the Cenozoic fossil record in the eastern U.S., the evolution and immigration of shrews (Soricidae) is not well understood. A rich soricid fauna from the Gray Fossil Site (GFS), Washington County, TN, has enabled many new inferences to be made. There are 7 new species in 6 genera: Paenelimnoecus, “Blarinella”, Petenyia, Tregosorex, Crusafontina, and Gen et sp. nov. GFS species of the genera Paenelimnoecus, “Blarinella”, and Petenyia are the first occurrence of each genus in the New World. Tregosorex, Crusafontina, and the N.A. taxon Limnoecus all have their latest documented occurrence at the …


A Comparison Of The Genetic Diversity Of The Class Ii Major Histocompatibility Complex In Ex Situ And In Situ Populations Of African Penguins (Spheniscus Demersus), Emily Willmer Apr 2015

A Comparison Of The Genetic Diversity Of The Class Ii Major Histocompatibility Complex In Ex Situ And In Situ Populations Of African Penguins (Spheniscus Demersus), Emily Willmer

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

As an endangered species, the African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) is at risk of becoming extinct in the wild due to destruction of their coastal habitat and reduction in food availability. The development of a genetically diverse and healthy captive population is important in helping to conserve the species. The goal of this project was to determine the genetic diversity of the class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC) of a wild population of African penguins and compare it to the diversity of the captive population at Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut that has previously been studied. We found that …