Biodiversity Commons^™

Mathematically Modeling How Trapping Regimes That Target Specific Crayfish Life Stages Impact Removal Efficacy, Rini Pattison

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

The red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, is an invasive species introduced into several streams within the Santa Monica Mountains (SMM) in Southern California. Crayfish predation decimates native aquatic species. Thus, the Mountains Restoration Trust (MRT) and Environmental Restoration Group have worked to remove crayfish through regular trapping in Malibu Creek.

To aid conservation efforts, former SURB students William Milligan and Dev Patel developed mathematical models of crayfish removal efficacy. Milligan created a differential equation model of how crayfish removal affects local newt populations. Patel expanded Milligan’s crayfish model by creating a discrete model of the crayfish life cycle that newly …

Drone Imagery Of Submarine Groundwater Discharge Effects On Coastal Primary Productivity On Coral Reefs In Maunalua Bay, Hawai'i, Lulu Wang, Florybeth Flores La Valle, Grace Kim

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) plays a crucial role in coastal ecosystems, especially coral reefs, by introducing terrestrial nutrients and freshwater, significantly affecting the primary productivity of coastal ecosystems and potentially altering ecological balances. La Valle et al. (2023) emphasized the importance of SGD in nutrient distribution and algal productivity, highlighting the need for comprehensive understanding and management strategies in the face of increasing nutrient runoff due to land use changes due to increased population. To better understand the impact, our experiments utilize remote sensing and data science by using a DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise drone with a thermal imaging camera …

Effectiveness Of Frog Skin Secretions Against Uv-B Radiation, Connor Mcgaha, Kinkade Mcmurray, Lee B. Kats

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

As an increasing number of their species face possible extinction, amphibian populations have been steadily declining over the past decades (IUCN). While various factors have been suggested or proven to be partially responsible for this reduction, increased ultraviolet B radiation (UVBR) appears to be one of the more prominent explanations, especially when considering the continual thinning of the Earth’s ozone layer due to anthropogenic climate change. However, it has also been discovered that skin secretions, which are reported to function as a component of amphibians’ innate immune systems, may have an effect on UVBR (Cramp and Franklin). With this in …

Quantifying The Role Of Water Quality On Nitrogen Cycling In A Trophic Estuary, Kayla Gonzalez-Boy

Symposium of Student Scholars

Jobos Bay Estuary is an intertidal, tropical estuary located in southern Puerto Rico. The estuary covers about 12 km² and has a variety of habitats, such as seagrass beds, mangroves, mud flats, and coral reefs, which play important roles in sediment trapping and water quality maintenance. Seagrasses also serve as nursery and feeding grounds and provide shelter for macrofauna. Currently, the role of seagrasses and water quality on nitrogen (N) cycling in trophic estuaries is not well constrained. Understanding variations in sediment-based effects on N cycling rates and transformations, and how they are associated with water quality, is an …

Culled Lionfish Sexual Maturity Over A Four-Year Timespan​, Christina Bland, Jurgen Hauer, Bilal Saleem, Noelle James

Symposium of Student Scholars

Lionfish are invasive in the Atlantic and the Caribbean. Like many other invasive species, they do not have any natural predators in these areas, so their population can grow unchecked. This can decrease the population of native fish species due to lionfish eating to excess. Because of their impact on native species, resource managers have incentivized lionfish hunting. Hunters were paid $6 USD for every pound of lionfish they brought in, so they possibly favored larger lionfish to increase their reward which would lead to an adaptive advantage for fish of smaller sizes. We hypothesized that the lionfish bounty program …

Building Community Through Nature, Mikusa, Wright State University Nature Club

Runkle Woods Symposia

Undergraduate student Mikusa introduces and speaks about the Wright State University Nature Lovers Club, of which she is the creator and president.

National Wildlife Federation Habitat Certification: A Collaboration With Fairborn?, Alexis Knick, Amanda Taylor

Runkle Woods Symposia

Mandy Taylor and Alexis Knick from the Fairborn Environmental Advisory Board discuss their mission to draft environmental sustainability and resilience plans and how Wright State can help contribute and partner with their mission.

Keynote Address: Seasonal Changes In The Avian Community Of The Wright State Woods, Jeffrey L. Peters

Runkle Woods Symposia

Dr. Jeffrey Peters is a Professor of Biological Sciences at Wright State University. He earned his B.S. in Biology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. For his M.S. in Applied Ecology and Conservation Biology at Frostburg State University in Maryland, Dr. Peters used DNA analyses to examine mating strategies in a species of duck, the Gadwall. Continuing his genetics research, he studied geographic variation in ducks for his Ph.D. in Biology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Dr. Peters continued this work at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, as a post-doctoral researcher, and at Wright State University. During his career, …

The Insult Of Road Salt, Rebecca N. Tuttle, Benson Sparkman, Landon Shackleford, Audrey E. Mcgowin

Runkle Woods Symposia

Wright State students Abby Tuttle, Benson Sparkman, and Landon Shackleford present their undergraduate research on the high chloride levels in the Wright State Woods, it's soil and water, caused by the use of winter road salt.

Economics Of Conservation And The Application To The Runkle Woods, Indigenous American Cultural Student Association, Brad Kerry, Eliza Hendrix, Mateo Bush, Ryan Diza

Runkle Woods Symposia

Student Eliza Hendrix presents a brief history of local Native American culture to give context to Adjunct Professor Brad Kerry's portion of the presentation focusing on conservation through an economic lens.

Welcome, Audrey E. Mcgowin

Runkle Woods Symposia

The introduction to the 6th Annual Runkle Woods Symposium given by Audrey McGowin.

Woods Symposium 2023 Program, Wright State University

Runkle Woods Symposia

The program for the 6th annual Wright State University Runkle Woods Symposium that took place on November 17, 2023

Lichens Of Iller Creek: A Checklist For The Iller Creek Unit, A Division Of Dishman Hills Conservation Area, Spokane Valley, Wa, Devin M. Mumey, Giovanna Bishop, Jessica L. Allen

2023 Symposium

The field of biodiversity documentation encompasses a broad range of research including new species discovery and description, compilation of species present in a given area, and investigation of interspecies interaction. In an era of increasingly devastating and rapid environmental change, documenting biodiversity has become increasingly important. Anthropogenic effects on urban-adjacent natural areas are especially significant, as they can cause numerous, often drastic, responses in ecosystems. Our objective here was to document the lichen biodiversity in a large urban-adjacent protected area: the Iller Creek Unit of the Dishman Hills Conservation Area in Spokane Valley, Washington. This unit encompasses a diversity of …

Developing Cryopreservation Methods Of Wheat Roots, Ramanpreet Singh, Nguyen Khoi Nguyen, Taylor S. Matteucci

2023 Symposium

In the midst of record breaking rates of plant species extinction due to climate change and fungal diseases, a universal cryopreservation method would provide a means for preservation of these many different species. The concept of plant root cryopreservation first emerged in the late 1960’s, and with it came new avenues of preserving tissue for the purposes of agriculture and research. Frozen tissues can be transported and stored more reliably than other more conventional means. When thawed, they have the potential to be cultured and grown. Several different methods of cryopreservation exist. This experiment used the Fast (3°C/minute) and Slow …

Shark-Diving Tourism In The Macaronesian Archipelagos: Challenges And Opportunities, Pedro Gonzáles Mantilla

ITSA 2022 Gran Canaria - 9th Biennial Conference: Corporate Entrepreneurship and Global Tourism Strategies After Covid 19

The Macaronesian region is typically heavily exploited by fisheries; however, in recent years, marine wildlife tourism has become popular and a shark-diving industry has emerged, potentially presenting an alternative for the sustainable use of sharks. Combining a literature review with interviews with dive operators conducting shark encounters in the Macaronesian archipelagos, we provide an overview of the challenges and conservation potential of shark-diving tourism for these territories. Owing to the regular presence of important shark species for tourism and the growth of the scuba-diving industry, shark-diving has potential to expand over the region. Yet, the overlap between European industrial fishing …

A Baseline Assessment Of Migratory And Resident Bird Use Of A Prairie Restoration Site In Eastern Washington, Madilyn J. Odiorne, Brynn A. Richey, Ruby L. Hammond

2023 Symposium

Prairies, and other types of grassland ecosystems, have suffered some of the most profound losses worldwide, due to anthropogenic factors such as fossil fuel extraction, agriculture, and climate change. Likewise, organisms inhabiting grassland ecosystems have become extirpated across much of their historical range, not the least of which has been a 50% decline in grassland birds since the 1960s. In response to losses of intact prairie in eastern Washington, a 120-ac site has been established on the EWU campus to regenerate native prairie and monitor changes in the ecosystem as native plants recolonize and replace non-natives. Because birds are an …

Zebrafish Feeding And Breeding: Adapting Best Practices For Zebrafish Husbandry, Abbigale Sullins

Scholars Day Conference

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are a tropical, freshwater fish that serve as a key research model for human health and disease. The anatomical and genetic similarities shared by humans and zebrafish make establishing a zebrafish laboratory advantageous for undergraduate research and coursework. Zebrafish feeding protocols utilize two primary food types: dry (flake or pelleted) food and live prey such as artemia (brine shrimp) or rotifers. Adopting a feeding protocol that incorporates both dry and live feed optimizes considerations of nutrition and cost for maintaining healthy fish. Best practices for feeding were adapted from authoritative sources in the current literature and published …

Diversification And Convergence Following The Transition From Saltwater To Freshwater In Stingrays, Autumn D Magnuson

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

One of the most fundamental questions in biology is why some groups of organisms are more diverse than others. Classic hypotheses for explaining differences in diversity consider distinctions in time, place, resources, and competitors as the staging grounds for differential diversification. Freshwater and saltwater environments have similar levels of diversity despite significant differences in size, so studying transitions between the two systems can provide insights into evolutionary processes. Despite the challenges associated with this transition, stingrays have invaded freshwater habitats multiple times across different continents, making them useful for better understanding these systems. In this study, we evaluated the frequency …

Environmental Factors Shaping A Sawfly-Associated Community Of Parasitoids, Carson Kephart, Robin K. Bagely

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

A major goal of evolutionary biology is to understand the mechanisms that shape biodiversity, especially amongst highly speciose lineages such as parasitic wasps. However, most of these lineages are poorly described, with very little available natural history information. This lack of information limits our ability to uncover the environmental factors that contribute to their patterns of divergence, distribution, and abundance. To that end, here we take advantage of a community of hymenopteran parasites that has an unusually large amount of available information since they attack an economically important pine sawfly species, Neodiprion lecontei. We build upon a set of …

Linking Soil Properties To Originally Wooded And Afforested Areas, Ashton A. Crowe, Matthew Laun

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Linking Soil Properties to Originally Wooded and Afforested Areas

Matthew Laun, Ashton Crowe

Mentor: I. P. Handayani

Hutson School of Agriculture Murray State University, KY, USA

Abstract

Afforestation, adding an artificial forest to a piece of land that has been barren of trees for a significant amount of time, has some seriously huge impacts on the environment. These effects can be seen as an increase in the soil organic matter, a decrease in compaction, and enhancement of porosity. Therefore, the soil can support more diverse microbes and fungal communities leading to better micro and macro nutrient transfers between plants. This …

Guano Among Bat Species From Two Regions Shows Influence Of Geography And Diet On Bacterial Community, Rahma Ahmed, Thomas Mcelroy, Shannon Whitney, Lydia Moore

Symposium of Student Scholars

Studies of bat guano have shown that the diversity and structure of associated microbial communities can be related to factors such as host phylogeny, life history and reproductive stage, geography, and diet. Many insectivorous bat species in the southeastern U.S. have generalist diets that may shift seasonally to take advantage of abundant prey species or maximize caloric intake. Seasonal shifts in prey availability or consumption should be reflected in a guano microbiome change. We also expected to detect distinct guano microbiomes within species. Within species, distinct microbial communities related to geography, and finally life history and reproductive stage. We compared …

Woods Symposium 2022 Program, Wright State University

Runkle Woods Symposia

The program for the 5th annual Wright State University Runkle Woods Symposium that took place on November 18, 2022

An Integral Projection Modeling Approach To Understanding Demographic Effects Of Multispecies Mutualisms, Alexandra Campbell

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Farming For The Future; Managing Lowland Grassland For Biodiversity, Sally Griffin

ORBioM (Open Research BioSciences Meeting)

Grassland is Ireland’s most expansive terrestrial habitat type covering >58% of the land cover but its biodiversity is under serious threat of agricultural intensification or land abandonment. While the decline in Irish grassland biodiversity has been recognised, there is a paucity of research into the restoration of lowland mesotrophic grassland. Most of Ireland’s grasslands are privately farmed mainly for pasture, therefore, appropriate agricultural management techniques for biodiversity restoration are vital. The purpose of this research was to first classify the lowland grassland vegetation in Killarney National Park, Co. Kerry in the west of Ireland (Approx. 244ha). Then to investigate selected …

Genetic Variation In The Ohio Population Of Tonguetied Minnow (Exoglossum Laurae), Emmily Moses, Sarah Armstrong, Madeline Williams

ONU Student Research Colloquium

A singular population of tonguetied minnow (Exoglossum laurae) inhabits a ~50-km segment of the Mad River of western Ohio. Tonguetied minnow is Endangered in Ohio as a consequence of its small geographic range and low abundance. For this study, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used amplify five genetic loci from 35 tonguetied minnow captured from the Mad River. Loci included two mitochondrial genes, the NADH-dehydrogenase 2 (ND2) and the control region (D-loop). From the nuclear genome, myosin heavy chain 6 (myh6) and β-actin (β-act) introns were amplified, as well as a portion of the major histocompatibility (Mhc-IIB) …

Digging Into Sustainable Agriculture, Gabrielle I. Tanner

Ideas: Exhibit Catalog for the Honors College Visiting Scholars Series

Between climate change and increasing global populations, humanity has reached a critical moment for agriculture. The push to produce more food has resulted in declining ecosystems and a diminishing crop biodiversity. Experts propose shifting towards sustainability to protect and augment natural ecosystem services, upon which agriculture depends. Widespread implementation of practices such as cover cropping and green manures have the potential to reduce waterway pollution and climate change while preserving the biodiversity that allows agroecosystems to be resilient against threats like pests. Ultimately, an agricultural revolution such as this is necessary in the effort to feed humanity in the future.

Microbial Diversity And Community Structure In Sediments Associated With The Seagrass (Thallassia Testudinum) In Apalachicola Bay, Florida, Rahma Ahmed, Thomas Mcelroy, Troy Mutchler

Symposium of Student Scholars

Seagrass is an angiosperm which provides many ecosystem services in coastal areas, such as providing food, shelter and nurseries for many species, and decreasing the impact of waves on shorelines. A global assessment reported that 29% of known seagrass meadows are in a state of decline due to the effects of human activity. Seagrass is commonly found in shallow marine waters where they form meadows containing a microbiome that plays an important role in providing nutrients for seagrass growth, though little is known about the microorganisms within the seagrass meadow sediments. Our project collected sediments from seagrass meadows and adjacent …

A Comparison Of Bird Diversity And Water Quality Within Aquatic Ecosystems, Drew Keller, Brady Wisdom, Emily Doyle, Tait Lapham

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Theoretical Proposal

Human Adaptation And Morphological Variation: Expanding Diversity In Anatomy Curriculum, Jordan Cass, Cooker Storm

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Introduction: The recent upturn in our nation’s socio-political conversation has fueled interest in ensuring that college curricula is diverse and inclusive. Because human anatomy is ubiquitous across colleges, it may be a valuable avenue to purposefully incorporate topics of diversity in a way that positively impacts our socio-cultural relationships. Providing students with a scientific understanding of our visible differences may mitigate subconscious bias when we see others who have different features. Purpose: We investigated the biogeographical factors that contribute to the morphological variability of the face, hair, and body size; with the secondary aim of developing diverse and …

Biodiversity Loss In Our Ecosystems Results In Increased Food Insecurity, Kyler A. Bartol

Ideas: Exhibit Catalog for the Honors College Visiting Scholars Series

Food security has always been a pressing issue in both our country and across the world. Recently, our food security has become at risk, and one main cause of this is the loss of biodiversity in our ecosystems. Dr. Alison Power has worked extensively with the legume plants in Ethiopia, and she has seen firsthand how their farming techniques have preserved biodiversity. Current research methods focus on alternative agricultural methods in order to protect biodiversity and keep our food secure.