Biology Commons^™

Soil Macroinvertebrate Responses To Wildfires In The Blue Ridge Mountains, Usa, Madeline Nicole Olliff, Bruce Snyder, Mac Callaham Jr., Melanie K. Taylor

Graduate Research Showcase

Title: Soil Macroinvertebrate Responses to Wildfires in the Blue Ridge Mountains, USA Authors: 1Madeline N. Olliff, 1Bruce A. Snyder, 2Melanie K. Taylor, and 2Mac A. Callaham

1Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville, Georgia, USA; 2USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Athens, Georgia, USA

Abstract: Wildfires are of increasing concern in light of climate change, more frequent late summer droughts, and increasing incidence of human ignitions. There have been few studies examining the effects of wildland fires on soil macroinvertebrates in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in spite of the importance of these animals to soil processes, and their contributions to the …

Monitoring Lake Sinclair, Margaret Blackledge

Graduate Research Showcase

Algae, a polyphyletic group of aquatic primary producers, play a great part in earth’s biosphere. They produce half of the world’s oxygen and are major contributors to aquatic biodiversity. When conditions are favorable to a species, algae will bloom. Some algal species will produce algal toxins during a bloom as a potential mechanism to concentrate carbon. Due to the integral part they play in aquatic food webs, nutrient cycling and the potential for harmful algal blooms, algal communities are monitored to determine the health and safety of aquatic environments. Lake Sinclair in middle Georgia is a good model where in …

Choices On Sampling, Sequencing, And Analyzing Dna Influence The Estimation Of Community Composition Of Plant Fungal Symbionts, Jonathan A. Cale, Natalie Scott, Gregory J. Pec, Simon M. Landhäusser, Justine Karst

Publications: Biology

Plant root symbionts, namely mycorrhizal fungi, can be characterized using a variety of methods, but most of these rely on DNA. While Sanger sequencing still fulfills particular research objectives, next‐generation sequencing currently dominates the f ield, thus understanding how the two methods differ is important for identifying both opportunities and limitations to characterizing fungal communities. In addition to testing sequencing methods, we also examined how roots and soils may yield different fungal communities and how disturbance may affect those differences. We sequenced DNA from ectomycorrhizal fungi colonizing roots of Pinus banksiana and found that operational taxonomic unit richness was higher, …

Understanding Patterns And Functional Impacts Of An Invasive Tree And Its Biological Control In A Riparian System, Annie L. Henry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Invasive species have become an inextricable part of the landscape, particularly in riparian plant communities, and removal is often a key component of restoration programs. Biological control (biocontrol) is a method of removal that is often both efficient and effective. However, the impact of biocontrol on target species and indirect effects from invasive species removal can be hard to predict. While monitoring the impact of invasive species removal usually involves some species-based assessment such as changes in diversity, historically dominant species or native species, these strategies do not typically provide insight into the mechanisms underlying plant community response to removal. …

Scalability And Performance Tradeoffs In Quantifying Relationships Between Elevation And Tidal Wetland Plant Communities, James R. Holmquist, Lisa Schile-Beers, Kevin Buffington, Meng Lu, Thomas J. Mozdzer, Jefferson Riera, Donald E. Weller, Meghan Williams, J Patrick Megonigal

Biology Faculty Research and Scholarship

Elevation is a major driver of plant ecology and sediment dynamics in tidal wetlands, so accurate and precise spatial data are essential for assessing wetland vulnerability to sea-level rise and making forecasts. We performed survey-grade elevation and vegetation surveys of the Global Change Research Wetland, a brackish microtidal wetland in the Chesapeake Bay estuary, Maryland (USA), to both intercompare unbiased digital elevation model (DEM) creation techniques and to describe niche partitioning of several common tidal wetland plant species. We identified a tradeoff between scalability and performance in creating unbiased DEMs, with more data-intensive methods such as kriging performing better than …

Addressing Bias In Faculty Retention, Sparkle L. Malone, Sydne Record

Biology Faculty Research and Scholarship

The field of ecology in the United States is not fully harnessing the diverse perspectives of the American population. Two major limitations to advancing diversity and inclusion include insufficient awareness of biased attitudes and the lack of large-scale faculty engagement in diversity and inclusion programs. Academic institutions must recognize and value individuals that participate in diversity and inclusion programs. Valuing this work will motivate all ecologists to accept the responsibility for these efforts and not simply assume that the few minorities in their field can do this work.

Analysis Of Methods To Measure Heart Rate In Mytilus Edulis, Kristin Pinho

Student Research Poster Presentations 2021

Non-invasive research will be performed to limit the additional stress from equipment and focus on the harmful effects that polluted run-off water has on mussels’ heart rates. The chemical that will be introduced to the laboratory environment will be weed killer. This research will simulate how water pollution affects different aquatic species and how that ultimately leads to environmental changes, while evaluating the most effective methods to conduct this research.

Acoustic Communication In The Atlantic Mudskipper, Periopthalmus Barbarus, Seth Hoffman

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Mudskippers are intertidal fishes that can survive both in and out of the water. They are territorial and exhibit behaviors to attract mates and defend against competitors. Recently, it has been shown that vibrations are produced and transmitted through the mud during such displays in one species, Periophthalmodon septemradiatus. To see if similar vibrations are produced in other species of mudskippers, I recorded the behavioral interactions of pairs of the mudskipper Periophthalmus barbarus via digital video and acoustic signals via accelerometer. Comparative analysis of fish mass, sex, contest length, and contest outcome coupled with acoustic characteristics within dyadic pairings …

A Comparison Of Bee Abundance And Species Richness In Three Managed Grassland Types, Emily Russ

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Bees are threatened by environmental changes, pathogens, and pesticides (Pettis, 2012, Meeus et al., 2018). The goal of the study is to compare and evaluate the bee abundance and species richness in three different field types. My hypothesis is that bees would favor the fields planted for their benefit, and that the tall grass dominated plantings would be preferred over mowed fescue. My findings have low power considering few replicates and the use of relative abundance and relative species richness for statistical analyses. Bee abundance and species richness had an overall positive relationship of varying degrees across habitat types. Relative …

Crippling Rapid Evolution Of Metastasis And Drug Resistance In A549 Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Cells With The Clinically Relevant Hsp90 Inhibitor Auy922, Nickolas Anthony Bacon

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The ability for species to evolve new features in response to changing circumstances in order to survive and propagate is a ubiquitous observation on both the macroscopic and microscopic levels of living systems. It should be no surprise, then, that diseases such as cancer utilize their own forms of adaptation to perpetuate themselves when exposed to external threats. Indeed, concepts drawn from Darwinian evolution are now widely accepted to help explain certain aspects of carcinogenesis and malignant progression, the sum of which have come to be known as the theory of tumor evolution. Since metastasis and drug resistance are features …

Comparing The Condition Of Deformed And Non-Deformed Walleyes In Long Lake, Mn, Clayton Beck

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Walleye Sander vitreus is a popular game fish in Minnesota. Walleye’s have become such a popular game fish for anglers that it has led agencies to raise Walleye in rearing ponds. Farm raised fish can show deformities due to environmental, genetic, nutritional, infectious, and toxic factors. Due to this phenomenon, the purpose of this study was to determine if the condition of the Walleye differed between those with and without deformities in Long Lake, MN. Angling was the method of capture during the months of September 2020 through July 2021. There was no evidence to suggest condition differed between non-deformed …

Using Audio Recording Devices And Multiseason Occupancy Modelling To Evaluate Clark's Nutcracker (Nucifraga Columbiana) Occurrence In Whitebark Pine Habitats Of Washington's Cascade Mountains, Lauren Taracka

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Clark’s nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) and whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis), both native to the harsh subalpine habitats of Washington’s Cascade Mountains, are being negatively impacted by white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola), the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae), and climate change. As temperatures continue to warm, while many species at lower elevations can move upward in elevation to suit their temperature needs, subalpine species do not have that option. Whitebark pine is a keystone tree species - numerous animals consume its high fat, high energy seeds; it’s a nurse tree, providing shelter …

Visual Control Of Refuge Recognition In The Whip Spider Phrynus Marginemaculatus, Kaylyn A.S. Flanigan, Daniel D. Wiegmann, Patrick Casto, Vincent J. Coppola, Natasha R. Flesher, Eileen Hebets, Verner Peter Bingman

Eileen Hebets Publications

Amblypygids, or whip spiders, are nocturnally active arachnids which live in structurally complex environments. Whip spiders are excellent navigators that can re-locate a home refuge without relying on visual input. Therefore, an open question is whether visual input can control any aspect of whip spider spatial behavior. In the current study, Phrynus marginemaculatus were trained to locate an escape refuge by discriminating between differently oriented black and white stripes placed either on the walls of a testing arena (frontal discrimination) or on the ceiling of the same testing arena (overhead discrimination). Regardless of the placement of the visual stimuli, the …

Identification And Quantification Of 11 Airborne Biochemicals Emitted By The Brown Recluse And Another Primitive Hunting Spider Using Headspace Solid-Phase Microextraction-Gc/Ms, Zachary Foulks, Jennifer Parks, William Stoecker, Charles Kristensen, Eileen A. Hebets, Honglan Shi

Eileen Hebets Publications

Loxosceles reclusa, or brown recluse spider, is a harmful household spider whose habitat extends throughout the Midwest in the USA and other regions in the world. The pheromones and other biomolecules that facilitate signaling for brown recluses and other spider species are poorly understood. A rapid and sensitive method is needed to analyze airborne spider signaling biomolecules to better understand the structure and function of these biochemicals in order to control the population of the spiders. In this study, we developed a novel headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME)-GC/MS method to analyze potential pheromones and biomolecules emitted by the brown recluse …

Multisensory Integration Supports Configural Learning Of A Home Refuge In The Whip Spider Phrynus Marginemaculatus, Kaylyn A.S. Flanigan, Daniel D. Wiegmann, Eileen Hebets, Verner Peter Bingman

Eileen Hebets Publications

Predator diets represent a potential interaction between local prey availability, prey antipredator defenses, and predator foraging behavior. Female spider-specialist muddauber wasps (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae) collect spiders and provision them intact, but paralyzed, to their developing larvae, providing a unique means of quantifying the diversity and abundance of prey that they capture. Mud-dauber wasps are hypothesized to be a major source of selection on antipredator defenses in web-building spiders, and the spiny and thickened abdomens of female spiny orb-weaving spiders (Araneae: Araneidae) are hypothesized to function as antiwasp defenses. We inventoried spider prey from nests of the mud-dauber wasps Sceliphron caementarium (Drury) …

Aquatic Coleoptera Of Northern Negros, Philippines, Marc Ryan Sabordo, Carl Michael Buyco, Gwendalyn Henares, Jessica Pacalioga, Hendrik Freitag

Biology Faculty Publications

The water beetle fauna of northern Negros Island has not been comprehensively studied. In this study, aquatic Coleoptera of northern Negros have been compiled from various collections. Specimens were sampled through manual sampling and light trap. Twenty-six (26) species were recorded including 21 which are Philippine endemics. Nine genera and three known species are recorded for the first time from Negros. Notes on distribution, ecology and identification are provided. Possible new species, future potential discoveries as well as current significance in terms of conservation are discussed.

Investigation Into The Genetic Provenance Of Three Rare Plants With East-West Disjunction Patterns In Pennsylvania., Scott Schuette, Christopher T. Martine

Other Faculty Research and Publications

Rare plant conservation relies on an understanding of the natural history, biology and ecology, and real and potential threats to their populations to inform state regulations that serve to protect the species from extirpation. This work often involves extensive field surveys over several years to determine population sizes and whether those populations are seeing reductions in number of individuals necessary to maintain the genetic diversity within and between those populations. Species and populations with high genetic diversity are better equipped to withstand sudden changes to their habitats that derive from land use changes and changing climate. There are a variety …

Stress Response Of Largemouth And Smallmouth Bass: Barbless Hooks Versus Barbed Hooks C & R, Wesley Steinmetz, Carson Tembrock

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Largemouth Bass Micropterus salmoides and Smallmouth Bass Micropterus dolomieu are two of the most popular species of fish for anglers to target in Minnesota. In this study, Largemouth Bass and Smallmouth Bass stress was characterized by handling time and recovery time. This study compares handling time and recovery time between barbed and barbless hooks. For Largemouth Bass, there was a significant relationship between recovery time and time out of the water for barbed (P = 0.02, R² = 0.86) and barbless hooks (P < 0.01, R² = 0.74). For Smallmouth Bass, there was no significant relationship between recovery time and time …

Effects Of Salt Runoff On Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Colonies, Kendra Fink

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Aquatic macroinvertebrates bridge the gap in part between primary and secondary consumers, making them ecologically important for most aquatic systems. They are used as biotic indicators for water quality due to their sensitivity to pollutants and may be affected, specifically, by chloride ion concentrations in the water. Water quality can be evaluated by looking at species compositions and their respective tolerance values. To determine long-term effects of road salt on macroinvertebrate colonies, a total of 338 identified macroinvertebrates of 10 families (two generalized to class) at 9 sites were collected from before, after, and between three bridges on Turtle River …

Strategies For Successful Mangrove Living Shoreline Stabilizations In Shallow Water Subtropical Estuaries, Rebecca Fillyaw

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Mangrove living shorelines are an effective alternative to hard-armoring, which combat erosion while also increasing habitat. To improve the success of future mangrove deployments, an experimental Rhizophora mangle living shoreline was deployed within Mosquito Lagoon, FL. A factorial design was used to test the impact of mangrove age, breakwater presence, and mangrove placement on mangrove survival and growth. Environmental factors were monitored to isolate the reason for mangrove mortalities. Mangrove age was represented by 3 developmental stages: "seedlings" at 11-months-old, "transitionals" at 23-months-old, and "adults" between 35 and 47-months-old. Mixed mangrove age groups were included to identify if seedling survival …

Pollinator Ecology In Agroecosystems Of Eastern South Dakota, Isabela Beatriz Vilella-Arnizaut

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Community structure contributes to ecosystem persistence and stability. To understand the mechanisms underlying pollination and community stability of natural areas in a human influenced landscape, a better understanding of the interaction patterns between plants and pollinators in disturbed landscapes is needed. Furthermore, understanding the potential conservation value in green spaces such as botanical gardens could assist in preserving and bolstering plant-pollinator interactions. Our study takes place in the Northern Great Plains which still retains extensive tracts of remnant temperate grassland habitat within a matrix of varying land-uses. First, we used a network-based approach to quantify how temperate grassland attributes and …

Monitoring Landscape And Spectral Dynamics Of Subtropical Freshwater Wetlands That Have Undergone Hydrological Restoration, Sarah Parker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Over the last century, millions of hectares of wetlands have been lost due to urban development and agricultural activities throughout the world. In the U.S., efforts have been made by federal and state legislation to restore wetland habitat in exchange for development on wetlands. To restore ecosystem function by reestablishing hydrological metrics (e.g., groundwater level fluctuations), wetland restoration aims to facilitate the growth of wetland vegetation to approximate the original conditions as a proxy for ecological integrity. In 1992, the first landscape-scale off-site mitigation project, the Disney Wilderness Preserve (DWP) was funded by the Walt Disney Company in Poinciana, Florida. …

Correlations In Microplastic Abundance Between Water, The Eastern Oyster, Crassostrea Virginica, And Their Biodeposits In A Dynamic Florida Estuary, Casey Craig

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Estuaries have been identified as hotspots of microplastic pollution because they are transitional zones where coastal freshwater and oceans converge. Microplastics (MP) are transported through estuaries by a dynamic series of forces such as surface flow and tides, which influence MP abundances and trends. The eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, is an estuarine bivalve known to ingest MP, resulting in negative impacts on organism physiology. I investigated MP pollution as a threat to C. virginica in a dynamic Florida estuary, the Indian River Lagoon (IRL), and determined there are both regional and small-scale spatial and temporal fluctuations in MP abundance. Tributaries …

Lessons From Four Decades Of Monitoring Vegetation And Fire: Maintaining Diversity And Resilience In Florida’S Uplands, Warren G. Abrahamson Ii, Christy R. Abrahamson, Matthew A. Keller

Faculty Journal Articles

Worldwide, humans are altering the fire regimes (fire-return intervals, severity, seasonality) of fire-prone ecosystems, fragmenting natural landscapes, and altering climates. Efforts to restore fire regimes in natural areas are usually guided by fire management plans (FMP) that rely on prescribed burning. Despite the common use of FMPs, limited efforts have gone to assessing vegetative and faunal responses. While some insights into responses to fire from short-term studies are available, there is less knowledge about FMP outcomes applied over multiple decades. Peninsular Florida hosts many fire-prone communities including globally threatened Florida scrub. We repeatedly sampled species composition and abundance during a …

The Effects Of Food Supply On Reproductive Hormones And Timing Of Reproduction In An Income-Breeding Seabird, Shannon Whelan, Scott A. Hatch, Z. Morgan Benowitz-Fredericks, Charline Parenteau, Olivier Chastel, Kyle Elliott

Faculty Journal Articles

Current food supply is a major driver of timing of breeding in income-breeding animals, likely because increased net energy balance directly increases reproductive hormones and advances breeding. In capital breeders, increased net energy balance increases energy reserves, which eventually leads to improved reproductive readiness and earlier breeding. To test the hypothesis that phenology of income-breeding birds is independent of energy reserves, we conducted an experiment on food-supplemented (“fed”) and control female black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla). We temporarily increased energy costs (via weight handicap) in a 2 × 2 design (fed/unfed; handicapped/unhandicapped) during the pre-laying period and observed movement …

Effects Of Wastewater Effluent On Fish Fin Morphology Of Larval Fathead Minnows (Pimephales Promelas) And Swimming Performance Of Smallmouth Buffalo (Ictiobus Bubalus), Seth Michael Bogue

Masters Theses

The Sangamon River flows across central Illinois and is mostly free flowing except in the city of Decatur where it is impounded to form Lake Decatur. The Sanitary District of Decatur (SDD) is located approximately three miles downstream of the Lake Decatur dam. For a significant portion of the year, the stretch of the Sangamon River downstream of SDD is dominated by effluent due to limited discharge from the Lake Decatur dam. This has resulted in heavy nutrient loading, most notably phosphorus, and elevated levels of nickel and other compounds in the downstream section of the river. Smallmouth buffalo ( …

Use Of Lymesim 2.0 To Assess The Potential For Single And Integrated Management Methods To Control Blacklegged Ticks (Ixodes Scapularis; Acari: Ixodidae) And Transmission Of Lyme Disease Spirochetes, Shravani Chitineni, Elizabeth R. Gleim, Holly D. Gaff

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Annual Lyme disease cases continue to rise in the U.S. making it the most reported vector-borne illness in the country. The pathogen (Borrelia burgdorferi) and primary vector (Ixodes scapularis; blacklegged tick) dynamics of Lyme disease are complicated by the multitude of vertebrate hosts and varying environmental factors, making models an ideal tool for exploring disease dynamics in a time- and cost-effective way. In the current study, LYMESIM 2.0, a mechanistic model, was used to explore the effectiveness of three commonly used tick control methods: habitat-targeted acaricide (spraying), rodent-targeted acaricide (bait boxes), and white-tailed deer targeted acaricide (4-poster …

Lynn Margulis And Boris Kozo-Polyansky: How The Symbiogenesis Was Translated From Russian, Victor Fet

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

This contribution details the complex history of the early work by Boris Kozo-Polyansky (1924) that became available in English translation 86 years after it was published in Russian. The great American naturalist Lynn Margulis—whose serial endosymbiosis theory was presciently predated by Kozo-Polyansky by four decades—was instrumental in organizing this resurrection and ‘horizontal transfer’ of knowledge, forgotten by that time even in Russia.

Novel Insights To Be Gained From Applying Metacommunity Theory To Long-Term, Spatially Replicated Biodiversity Data, Sydne Record, Nicole M. Voelker, Phoebe L. Zarnetske, Nathan I. Wisnoski, Jonathan D. Tonkin, Christopher Swan, Luca Marazzi, Nina Lany, Thomas Lamy, Ado Compagnoni, Max C. N. Castorani, Riley Andrade, Eric R. Sokol

Biology Faculty Research and Scholarship

Global loss of biodiversity and its associated ecosystem services is occurring at an alarming rate and is predicted to accelerate in the future. Metacommunity theory provides a framework to investigate multi-scale processes that drive change in biodiversity across space and time. Short-term ecological studies across space have progressed our understanding of biodiversity through a metacommunity lens, however, such snapshots in time have been limited in their ability to explain which processes, at which scales, generate observed spatial patterns. Temporal dynamics of metacommunities have been understudied, and large gaps in theory and empirical data have hindered progress in our understanding of …

Studies Of Insect Temporal Trends Must Account For The Complex Sampling Histories Inherent To Many Long-Term Monitoring Efforts, Ellen A.R. Welti, Anthony Joern, Aaron M. Ellison, David C. Lightfoot, Sydne Record, Nicholas Rodenhouse, Emily H. Stanley, Michael Kaspari

Biology Faculty Research and Scholarship

Crossley et al. (2020)¹ examine patterns of change in insect abundance and diversity across US Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites, concluding “a lack of overall increase or decline”. This is notable if true, given mixed conclusions in the literature regarding the nature and ubiquity of insect declines across regions and insect taxonomic groups^2–6. The data analyzed, downloaded from and collected by US LTER sites, represent unique time series of arthropod abundances. These long-term datasets often provide critical insights, capturing both steady changes and responses to sudden unpredictable events. However, a number of the included datasets are not …