Biodiversity Commons^™

Revision, Description, And Diagnosis Of Adult And Larval Pycnopsyche Spp. (Trichoptera: Limnephilidae) Using Morphological And Molecular Methods, Matthew Green

All Dissertations

The genus Pycnopsyche Banks, 1905 (Trichoptera: Limnephilidae) is the 2nd most species-rich genus of Nearctic Limnephilidae. Larvae and adults are ecologically diverse and widespread throughout eastern North America. Larvae construct cases from mineral or plant material and are frequently used by biomonitoring professionals at the species level to monitor trends in water quality. However, only two species of Pycnopsyche are currently separable as larvae, with diagnosis limited by the number of unknown larvae associated with known adults. Using morphological and molecular data, the phylogenetic relationships among Pycnopsyche species and species groups were inferred with Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood analyses to …

The Intersection Of Herbicide Policy, Exposure, And Health At The University Of Connecticut, Katherine Hayward

Honors Scholar Theses

Pesticides play an extremely complicated role in our everyday lives. From the water you use to make your coffee, to the breastmilk your neighbor provides for their child, to the lake your dog swims in, chemical pesticides or their byproducts have been found in nearly every corner of our lives. The chemicals used in synthetic herbicides, a subcategory of pesticides, have far reaching negative impacts on human health, biodiversity, and water quality. Despite there being numerous published studies on the relationships between pesticide exposures and health, there is still ongoing discord and controversy surrounding their role in our lives. After …

Role Of Cdx4 And Sp5l In Zebrafish Development, Wesley Tsai

Honors Theses

The Caudal Type Homeobox transcription factors cdx are a family of genes found in vertebrates that regulates body regionalization and anterior-posterior patterning. They are also responsible for regulating axial elongation, but the mechanisms behind this behavior are not known. Previous studies in mouse embryonic stem cells have shown that the cdx genes are necessary for upregulating the gene sp5 which may be linked to axial elongation. Sp5 is a zinc-finger transcription factor belonging to the specificity protein (sp) family. Our group has used in-situ hybridization experiments on zebrafish embryos to show that sp5-like (sp5l) is transcribed within tailbud tissues that …

Bryophytes Of Goochland County, Virginia, Mikayla Quinn

Honors Theses

Bryophytes are non-vascular land plants that include mosses, liverworts, and hornworts. Although easier to overlook because of their smaller size, bryophytes are a fundamental part of the ecosystem. As such, maintaining record of their biodiversity is important. Yet, records of bryophyte species in Goochland County, VA were low compared to more thoroughly documented counties such as Prince Edward County. This study expands the documentation of bryophyte flora and presents a checklist of bryophyte species found Virginia’s Goochland County from 2020-2023. Fieldwork conducted at public and privately-owned properties throughout the county between January 2020 and March 2023 yielded 702 specimens that …

The Bellarmine Bee Bed: Organizing A Native Plant Garden Using Feedback From The Local Community, Kate Moran

Undergraduate Theses

Animal pollinators are the cornerstone of healthy ecosystems. Their survival is essential for the persistence of entire food chains: from the flowers they cross-pollinate directly, to the animals who depend on those plants for nutrition. The establishment of pollinator gardens—particularly ones that consist of native plants—is an effective way to enhance their biodiversity, abundance, and well-being.

The main goal of this thesis is to construct a pollinator garden that maximizes the benefits for animal pollinators using feedback from local gardeners. A survey was used to gather information about the popularity and preferences of 40 flowering plants, and after analyzing the …

Twenty Years Of Change In A Southeast Florida Acropora Cervicornis Thicket, Daniel Perez

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Acropora cervicornis is a species of stony coral that can exist in large thickets that provide functionally unique habitat. However, populations have declined by 98% in some areas of the Caribbean. Even in death, the structure from an A. cervicornis thicket provides surface area for the attachment of benthic organisms. Broward County Acropora (BCA) is an A. cervicornis thicket, located off Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which has been monitored since 2003. The objective of this study was to describe the temporal changes in community structure in response to 20 years of disturbances affecting BCA. Data was collected by taking images along …

Marine Law Symposium: Can Offshore Wind Development Have A Net Positive Impact On Biodiversity? Regulatory And Scientific Perspectives And Considerations April 20-21, 2023, Roger Williams University School Of Law Marine Affairs Institute, The Nature Conservancy

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Darwin Core Archive File, Stover-Ebinger Herbarium, Eastern Illinois University

Darwin Core Archive Download

ZIP file contains occurrences.csv, identivications.csv, and images.csv. The meta.xml document describes the content. Fields within the occurrences.csv file are defined by the Darwin Core exchange standard.

This file is updated as new occurrence records are added.

A New Monotypic Genus And Species From China, Langxie Feti Gen. Et Sp. N. (Scorpiones: Buthidae), Victoria Tang, Qingquan Jia, Leonhard Liu

Euscorpius

A new monotypic genus, Langxie gen. n., is described from Xizang (Tibet), China. The new genus shares an important morphological character with Afrolychas Kovařík, 2019: absence of external accessory denticles (EADs) along the sixth row of median denticles (MDs) on the pedipalp movable finger. Langxie gen. n. is different from Afrolychas in the following aspects: loss of EAD near the proximally enlarged MD within each row (i. e., loss of all EAD on the movable finger; this also distinguishes the new genus from other related genera in the “(Ananteris + Isometrus)” clade (Štundlová et …

The Effect Of Callery Pear (Pyrus Calleryana) On Soil Macrofauna (Diplopoda And Oligochaeta), Joseph M. Mcgee

Biology Theses

Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) is a relatively recent invader of North America. Its ecological effects are still being explored, including those affecting soil macrofauna such as millipedes (Diplopoda) and earthworms (Clitellata: Oligochaeta). These animals play important roles in many soil processes so understanding how they respond to invasive species is vital to soil health. A previous study exploring potential herbicide control was completed in 2019, however as of 2022 there are still treatment zones with little to no Callery pear alongside fully invaded plots, providing an optimal habitat mosaic for comparison. This allowed us to pursue two research …

Benthic Beasts: The Ecological Significance Of Lake Sturgeon And Blue Catfish In Eastern Appalachian Waterways, Stewart Thacker

Research Day

East Tennessee freshwater ecosystems comprise an abundance of an extremely diverse selection of species. This presentation examines Acipenser fulvescens and Ictalurus furcatus, two of the largest freshwater fish in the Appalachian area, which play significant ecological roles within the benthic dimension of our freshwater environments. Commonly known as “bottom-feeders,” Benthivorous species enjoy a broad range of food sources including other fish, detritus, crustaceans, and more. The extensive variety of food consumed by A. fulvescens and I. furcatus permits population control of other, denser, aquatic populations inhabiting other regions of the water column, as well as other organisms included …

A Diverse Flea (Siphonaptera) Assemblage From The Small Mammals Of Central New Mexico, Dianne E. Peterson, Jonathan L. Dunnum, Schuyler W. Liphart, Karen A. Boegler, Ralph P. Eckerlin, Eric P. Hoberg, Martha O. Perez-Arriaga, Katrina Derieg, David Garnand, Mariel L. Campbell, Joseph A. Cook

MANTER: Journal of Parasite Biodiversity

The geographical ranges of many mammals and their associated parasites are dynamic. Comprehensive documentation of these communities over time provides a foundation for interpreting how changing environmental conditions, driven by accelerating climate change, other anthropogenic disturbances, and natural events, may influence host-parasite interactions. Fleas (Order Siphonaptera) are obligate, hematophagous parasites of birds and mammals with medical interest because of their role in transmitting pathogens. From 2016 to 2019, we sampled the small mammal and associated flea communities in El Malpais National Conservation Area (El Malpais) in Cibola County, New Mexico. Among 898 mammalian specimens, 925 fleas representing 29 species were …

Abcds Of Triggerfish In Pemba And Misali Island: Abundance, Biodiversity, Behaviour, Cultural Significance And Distribution, Hannah Ng Shueh Yi

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study takes a socioecological approach to understanding triggerfish (Balistidae) in Pemba Island, using Misali Island reefs as a sample ecological site. Two reef sites on Misali Island and three of four districts in Pemba were observed during the study. The abundance of Balistipus undulatus at one of two study sites is close to the maximum carrying capacity of the reef. Overall observed biodiversity was low. Behavioural trends point to distinct species specific defence strategies and species aggression taking different forms. Triggerfishes cultural significance was primarily as a food fish, though it is not highly sought after. With polarised responses …

Development Of Host-Selective, Pcr-Inhibiting Oligos As A Tool To Investigate The Eukaryotic Symbionts Of Insect Hosts, Christian L. Weinrich

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Insects are hosts to diverse communities of other organisms. These communities can include microbes such as bacteria, yeast, and protists, as well as multicellular organisms such as nematodes and mites. The prokaryotic associates of many insects have been well-studied and are often investigated by amplifying and sequencing the gene for the 16S ribosomal subunit using universal primers.

However, the eukaryotic associates of many insects remain poorly characterized, and this is in part due to the difficulty in utilizing 18S (the eukaryotic analog for 16S) for eukaryote detection. Because the insect host is also a eukaryote and makes up the bulk …

Documenting Plant Biodiversity At The Eastern Michigan University Owned Parsons Center For Arts And Sciences, Emily R. Edwards Mrs.

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Eastern Michigan University (EMU) owns an 86-acre property in northwest Michigan called the Parsons Center for Arts and Sciences. No botanical research has been done at the Center. A comprehensive plant species list will provide important resources for EMU students, all Parsons users (e.g., artists and community members), and county biologists. This research aims to collect and identify as many plant species at the site as possible and create two online, publicly available databases of the plant list and collection. Such a collection will bring awareness to the Parsons Center and add to its botanical value.

Initial field-work was conducted …

Rehabilitating An Aging Ichthyology Collection And Turning Into An Effective Teaching Tool For Organismal Biology, Emmy Delekta

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Natural history collections are crucial for understanding the world’s biodiversity. These collections also hold important value in educating students about biodiversity, particularly phenotypic diversity. The University of Louisville (UofL) Department of Biology holds a natural history collection, a wet collection of preserved fishes, that appears to have been maintained up through the 1990s. However, due to shifts in funding priorities and faculty interests, much of the collection was relocated and what remains has been neglected for many years. Here, we describe our efforts to rehabilitate, revitalize, and digitize what is left of UofL’s ichthyology collection - transforming it into a …

Habitiat Structure And Ecomorphology Of Fishes In Neotropical Blackwater Creeks., Devya Hemraj-Naraine

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Freshwater ecosystems provide habitat for a diversity of aquatic flora and fauna. However, anthropogenic activities like mining and pollution alters aquatic habitats and the ecosystem services they provide. In South America, which hosts one quarter of all freshwater fish species, aquatic habitats are under considerable encroachment from human development. We surveyed nine blackwater creeks tributary to the Demarara River along a major Highway in Guyana to determine whether fish morphology and community structure correlate with habitat characteristics among sites with different degrees of human impact. Twenty-three morphological traits were measured on 3-5 adult specimens of each species. The most abundant …

Pollinators And Flowering Resources In Louisville Urban Green Spaces, Sarah Hobbs

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Urban Greenspaces can appear in many different forms such as parks, urban orchards, and community gardens. These spaces provide important ecosystem services such as enhanced biodiversity, improved soil health, and increased carbon sequestration. Greenspaces such as parks and community gardens have been relatively well studied in the last few decades compared to urban orchards, despite the multitude of ecosystem services that can be provided or enhanced by these orchards. We hypothesize that urban orchards will provide the optimal conditions for pollinator communities because urban orchards normally have the greatest variety of vegetation and flowering resources, which is positively correlated with …

Habitat Characteristics And Winter Use Of Woodpecker-Excavated Tree Cavities, Adrianna Yoder

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Avifauna are in decline in North America, including red-headed woodpeckers (Melanerpes erythrocephalus). Red-headed woodpeckers are negatively impacted by urbanization, which has decreased their ideal habitats of oak-savannas and through the management of urban trees there has been a reduction in the amount of tree decay, a necessary feature of suitable trees that woodpeckers can make cavities in. Cavities are created and used as nests in the breeding season (spring/summer) and as roost-sites in the non-breeding season (fall/winter). In the Chicagoland region, during the fall some red-headed woodpeckers migrate while others do not and remain overwinter, making them facultative …

Effect Of Functional Trait Variation On Bee Body Temperature, Gabriella A. Muller

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Bees are both ecologically and economically important pollinators for maintaining agricultural production and the health of many diverse ecosystems. As our world continues to change, bee diversity and population numbers are declining due to increasing temperatures. Functional traits such as body size and coloration can mediate the effects of such harsh thermal conditions on insect performance. Specifically, bee body size can significantly impact thermal parameters, with larger bees gaining and losing heat more slowly than smaller bees due to higher surface area to volume ratios. To obtain a better understanding of these relationships, we studied the variation in body temperature …

Effect Of Variable Canopy Cover On Floral Visitation, Toby Shaya

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Pollinators provide essential services for ecosystem function. Studies aimed at understanding how availability of floral resources impacts pollinators find that canopy cover impacts bees indirectly by affecting the amount of floral resources in the forest understory and directly by changing the thermal environment in which they can thermoregulate. As ectotherms the maintenance of bee body temperature depends on the distribution of patches of sun and shade throughout a landscape, which can be dependent on canopy cover. The goals of this study were to understand how variable canopy cover drives floral visitation patterns in oak savanna found in the Oak Openings …

The Influence Of Urban Landscape Characteristics And Regional Climate On Bee Diversity, Bridget T. Harter

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

When compared to the lack of resources within homogeneous agricultural lands, cities can serve as a refuge for insect pollinators by providing a variety of floral and nesting resources. Areas of intense urbanization, with a high percentage of impervious surface, reduce the size and quality of pollinator habitat and negatively impact pollinators. The spatial complexity within and between urban landscapes may explain this contradictory view of cities as detrimental and beneficial for insect pollinators. This study examines the influence of (1) the spatial configuration of nearby, herbaceous vegetation and (2) regional climate on bee diversity across cities. Bee abundance and …

Urban Or Rural? Does It Matter To Bumble Bees An Analysis In Kalamazoo, Mi, Elizabeth M. Silber

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Bumble bee species are declining in vast geographical areas due to many factors, including reductions in suitable nest site locations and floral resources, as land uses shift toward urbanization and agricultural intensification. The potential for urban areas to support bumble bees is understudied. The purpose of this study was to see how environment type impacts bumble bee species richness, abundance, and diversity in both urban and rural environments. Data from private and public spaces was gathered through the usage of citizen science. Observations were solicited under a previously established iNaturalist citizen science project, Southwest Michigan Bee Watch, and past data …

Defining Best Management Practices For Bee Conservation In Agroforestry Systems, Elijah C. Cardona

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Wild bees are an indispensable part of neotropical ecosystems because of their role in agriculture and native flora pollination. Despite their importance, wild bees are threatened throughout their distribution by pesticides, habitat loss, land use change and climate change. The objective of this study was to understand how to better manage agroforestry systems for wild bees by asking if wild bee abundance is influenced by the level of shade cover, agroforest type, the number or diversity of floral resources, tree diversity, and the density of trees in an agroforest. A total of 10 agroforests were selected in San Luis de …

Rapid Assesment Of Aquatic Insect Diversity And Abundance Used To Evaluate The Quality Of Stream Restoration, Kaleb Stephen Kindoll

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Stream and wetland restoration activities seek to improve the function of aquatic ecosystems. Measurement of the diversity and abundance of aquatic insects are commonly used to evaluate the success of restoration efforts, but these measurements are often very time consuming. In this study, we attempt to construct an efficient method that can be used to rapidly assess the diversity and abundance of aquatic insects as a measure of the quality of stream restoration. We suspended uniform sized pieces of cardboard paper coated with adhesive to trap insects in three different environments: one restored and two unrestored streams with similar characteristics. …

Preliminary Report On Fossil Marine Vertebrates From The Mid-Pfeifer Shale (Upper Cretaceous) From Central Kansas, Alison G. Mieczkowski

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

The Pfeifer Shale is a 93-million-years-old rock unit belonging to the Upper Cretaceous Greenhorn Limestone broadly distributed in central Kansas, where it formed in the Western Interior Seaway, a Late Cretaceous epicontinental seaway in North America. Here, we describe fossil marine vertebrates collected from the middle portion of the Pfeifer Shale at a locality in Russell County, Kansas. Surface-collected specimens are largely represented by teeth of some extinct sharks, such as Ptychodus, Cretoxyrhina, and Squalicorax, that are typical for rock units of the Western Interior Seaway immediately above and below the Pfeifer Shale. Examination of microscopic fossils …

Influence Of Seed Mixes On Pollinator Communities Within An Electric Right-Of-Way, Kylee Nissen

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Pollinator communities are amongst species facing dramatic population declines due to anthropogenic changes. These declines are driven by land use changes with agricultural expansion and urbanization. Utility lands must be managed in ways that prevent tall vegetation from encroaching, making them an ideal place to recreate native grasslands. This research aims to assess how different seed mixes used by utility companies impact pollinator community composition. The study site is a 15-acre electric ROW located outside of St. Louis IL. The site was prepared in 2021 and incorporates a randomized mix of turfgrass-seeded plots, native seeded plots, and unseeded plots acting …

Bryophytes At Cave Entrances Across A Range Of Anthropogenic Disturbance, Morghan Mccool

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Cave entrances are critical ecosystems in their role as ecotones between the interior cave environment and the surrounding external environment. Bryophytes serve as ecosystem engineers of cave entrance microhabitats. This study piloted a method to quantify anthropogenic disturbance unique to cave entrances and characterize the bryophyte assemblages at caves in urban and other natural areas. Bryophytes and environmental variables were sampled from cave entrances; bryophytes were identified, alpha and beta diversity values were computed. So far, 144 species of bryophytes, 36 of which were state records, have been identified across 6 sites. By improving knowledge of bryophyte communities, park managers …

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 …

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 …