Biology Commons^™

Working With Recreational Therapy, Emily Edwards

Biology Posters

No abstract provided.

Color And Size Preference In Guppy Mate Choice, Kate Bushman, Sydney Call, Lindsey Hansen

Biology Posters

No abstract provided.

The Bachelorette: Guppy Edition, Kailey Allen, Katie Pontsler, Lynnessa Zika, Jessica Gutierrez

Biology Posters

No abstract provided.

Research & Development Internship At Usana Health Sciences Inc., Nick Noyce

Biology Posters

No abstract provided.

Learning To Love Leftovers: Using By-Catch To Expand Our Knowledge In Entomology, John M. Stark, Ricardo A. Ramirez

Biology Faculty Publications

Each year, federal and state agencies, including universities, conduct field surveys for invasive species in an attempt to detect new introductions early in the invasion process. National surveys for invasive insects are administered and coordinated by the United States Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service-Plant Protection and Quarantine (USDA-APHIS-PPQ) and the Forest Service through Farm Bill § 10007 ( www.aphis.usda.gov ), the Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS) (caps.ceris.purdue.edu), and Early Detection Rapid Response (EDRR) ( www.fs.fed.us/invasivespecies ) programs. Thousands of traps are placed annually and monitored usually every one to two weeks throughout the U.S., mostly during …

Introduction Effort, Climate Matching And Species Traits As Predictors Of Global Establishment Success In Non-Native Reptiles, Peter J. Mahoney, Karen H. Beard, Andrew M. Durso, Aimee G. Tallian, Arin Lexine Long, Ryan J. Kindermann, Nicole E. Nolan, Daniel Kinka, Harrison E. Mohn

Biology Faculty Publications

Non-native reptiles are often detrimental to native communities and ecosystems and can be extremely difficult to manage once established. Thus, there is considerable interest in predicting the likelihood of establishment of nonnative reptiles. We assessed three hypotheses describing possible factors contributing to the successful establishment of introduced reptiles in an effort to better identify potential invaders.

Registration Of ‘Newell’ Smooth Bromegrass, K P. Vogel, R B. Mitchell, B L. Waldron, M R. Haferkamp, J D. Berdahl, D D. Baltensperger, Galen Erickson, T J. Klopfenstein

Green Canyon Environmental Research Area, Logan Utah

No abstract provided.

Citizen Science Reveals Widespread Negative Effects Of Roads On Amphibian Distributions, Bradley J. Cosentino, David M. Marsh, Kara S. Jones, Joseph J. Apodaca, Christopher Bates, Jessica Beach, Karen H. Beard, Kelsie Becklin, Jane Margaret Bell, Christopher Crockett, George Fawson, Jennifer Fjelsted, Elizabeth A. Forys, Kristen S. Genet, Melanie Grover, Jaimie Holmes, Katherine Indeck, Nancy E. Karraker, Eran S. Kilpatrick, Tom A. Langen, Stephen G. Mugel, Alessandro Molina, James R. Vonesh, Ryan J. Weaver, Anisha Willey

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Landscape structure is important for shaping the abundance and distribution of amphibians, but prior studies of landscape effects have been species or ecosystem-specific. Using a large-scale, citizen science-generated database, we examined the effects of habitat composition, road disturbance, and habitat split (i.e. the isolation of wetland from forest by intervening land use) on the distribution and richness of frogs and toads in the eastern and central United States. Undergraduates from nine biology and environmental science courses collated occupancy data and characterized landscape structure at 1617 sampling locations from the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program. Our analysis revealed that anuran species …

Stem Nematode Counteracts Plant Resistance Of Aphids In Alfalfa, Medicago Sativa, Ricardo A. Ramirez, John M. Stark

Biology Faculty Publications

Plants are exploited by a diverse community of insect herbivores and phytopathogens that interact indirectly through plant-mediated interactions. Generally, plants are thought to respond to insects and pathogens through different defensive signaling pathways. As plants are selected for resistance to one phytophagous organism type (insect vs. pathogen) in managed systems, it is not clear how this selection may affect community interactions. This study examined the effect of nematode-resistant varieties on aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) suppression, and then determined how infection by the stem nematode, Ditylenchus dipsaci, mediated ecological effects on aphids and on plant defense proteins. Four alfalfa (Medicago sativa) varieties …

Müllerian Mimicry As A Result Of Codivergence Between Velvet Ants And Spider Wasps, Juanita Rodriguez, James P. Pitts, Carol D. Von Dohlen, Joseph S. Wilson

Biology Faculty Publications

Recent studies have delineated a large Nearctic Müllerian mimicry complex in Dasymutilla velvet ants. Psorthaspis spider wasps live in areas where this mimicry complex is found and are phenotypically similar to Dasymutilla. We tested the idea that Psorthaspis spider wasps are participating in the Dasymutilla mimicry complex and that they codiverged with Dasymutilla. We performed morphometric analyses and human perception tests, and tabulated distributional records to determine the fit of Psorthaspis to the Dasymutilla mimicry complex. We inferred a dated phylogeny using nuclear molecular markers (28S, elongation factor 1-alpha, long-wavelength rhodopsin and wingless) for Psorthaspis species and compared it to …

Column-Scale Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity Estimates In Coarse-Textured Homogeneous And Layered Soils Derived Under Steady-State Evaporation From A Water Table, Morteza Sadeghi, Markus Tuller, Mohammed R. Gohardoust, Scott B. Jones

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

Steady-state evaporation from a water table has been extensively studied for both homogeneous and layered porous media. For layered media it is of interest to find an equivalent homogeneous medium and define ‘‘effective’’ hydraulic properties. In this paper a new solution for steady-state evaporation from coarse-textured porous media is presented. Based on this solution, the evaporation rate represents a macroscopic (column-scale) measure of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity at the pressure head equal to the maximum extent of the hydraulically connected region above the water table. The presented approach offers an alternative method for determination of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of homogeneous coarse-textured …

Warming, Competition, And Bromus Tectorum Population Growth Across An Elevation Gradient, Aldo Compagnoni, Peter B. Adler

Green Canyon Environmental Research Area, Logan Utah

Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is one of the most problematic invasive plant species in North America and climate change threatens to exacerbate its impacts. We conducted a two‐year field experiment to test the effect of warming, competition, and seed source on cheatgrass performance across an elevation gradient in northern Utah. We hypothesized that warming would increase cheatgrass performance, but that warming effects would be limited by competing vegetation and by local adaptation of cheatgrass seed sources. The warming treatment relied on open top chambers, we removed vegetation to assess the effect of competition from neighboring vegetation, and we reciprocally …

Us Epa Expert Workshop: Nutrient Enrichment Indicators In Streams, Michelle A. Baker, Candice Bauer, Max Bothwell, Don Charles, Betty Fetscher, Stuart Findlay, Terry Fleming, Steve Francoeur, Evelyn Gaiser, Jim Hagy, Anne Hershey, Lisa Huff, Ryan King, Tina Laidlaw, Mark Munn, Greg Pond, Steven Rier, Bob Sinsabaugh, A J. Smith, Nathan Smucker, Jan Stevenson, Mike Suplee

Biology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Testing Predictions Of The Janzen–Connell Hypothesis: A Meta-Analysis Of Experimental Evidence For Distance- And Density- Dependent Seed And Seedling Survival, Liza S. Comita, Simon A. Queenborough, Stephen J. Murphy, Janelle L. Eck, Kaiyang Xu, Meghna Krishnadas, Noelle G. Beckman, Yan Zhu

Biology Faculty Publications

1. The Janzen–Connell hypothesis proposes that specialist natural enemies, such as herbivores and pathogens, maintain diversity in plant communities by reducing survival rates of conspecific seeds and seedlings located close to reproductive adults or in areas of high conspecific density. Variation in the strength of distance- and density-dependent effects is hypothesized to explain variation in plant species richness along climatic gradients, with effects predicted to be stronger in the tropics than the temperate zone and in wetter habitats compared to drier habitats.
2. We conducted a comprehensive literature search to identify peer-reviewed experimental studies published in the 40+ years since the hypothesis …

A Heterogenous Thermal Environment Enables Remarkable Behavioral Thermoregulation In Uta Stansburiana, Maria Goller, Franz Goller, Susannah S. French

Biology Faculty Publications

Ectotherms can attain preferred body temperatures by selecting specific temperature microhabitats within a varied thermal environment. The side-blotched lizard, Uta stansburiana may employ microhabitat selection to thermoregulate behaviorally. It is unknown to what degree habitat structural complexity provides thermal microhabitats for thermoregulation. Thermal microhabitat structure, lizard temperature, and substrate preference were simultaneously evaluated using thermal imaging. A broad range of microhabitat temperatures was available (mean range of 11°C within 1–2 m2) while mean lizard temperature was between 36°C and 38°C. Lizards selected sites that differed significantly from the mean environmental temperature, indicating behavioral thermoregulation, and maintained a temperature significantly above …

Evaluation Of Pro-Inflammatory Biomarkers As Potential Early Indicators Of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (Ards), Makda Solomon Gebre

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Infections with the 2009 pandemic influenza A(HlNl) virus often leads to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in high-risk patients. In these patients, ARDS has a mortality rate of 40-50 % [1]. Patients may die before any intervention is possible since there are few if any early biomarkers that are indicative of ARDS and can be used for diagnosis. In a search for biomarkers that signal early disease progression in mice, multiple acute phase proteins involved with inflammatory responses to infectious stimuli were proposed. Three biomarkers were evaluated for this project. These included C-reactive protein (CRP), Serum Amyloid A (SAA) and …

An Evaluation Of An Auditory Neurophysiological Model, Alysha Nicole Waters

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Individuals with normal hearing are adept at understanding speech in the presence of noise, such as other speakers or environmental sounds. In contrast, individuals with hearing loss struggle to understand speech in the same adverse conditions. Neural processing in the inferior colliculus (IC) of the brainstem appears to contribute to the ability to separate simultaneous competing sounds. A computational model developed in the Sinex lab reproduces the responses of IC neurons to complex sound mixtures. It seems likely that the model can be applied to improve the processing of speech in noise. The computational model's effectiveness at improving the processing …

Evaluating Process- And Constraint-Based Approaches For Modeling Macroecological Patterns, Xiao Xiao

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Macroecological patterns, such as the highly uneven distribution of individuals among species and the monotonic increase of species richness with area, exist across ecological systems despite major differences in the biology of different species and locations. These patterns capture the general structure of ecological communities, and allow relatively accurate predictions to be made with limited information for under-studied systems. This is particularly important given ongoing climate change and loss of biodiversity. Understanding the mechanisms behind these patterns has both scientific and practical merits.

I explore two conceptually different approaches that have been proposed as explanations for ecological patterns – the …

Synthesizing Research And Education: Ecology And Genetics Of Independent Fern Gametophytes And Teaching Science Inquiry And Content Through Simulations, Aaron M. Duffy

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The mission statements of Utah State University and the Department of Biology, as well as the requirements of funding agencies like the National Science Foundation encourage an integration of teaching and research. I have attempted to achieve that in my dissertation work by using tools I originally created to support and inform my biological research projects to teach science content and inquiry to middle school and undergraduate students.

Chapter 2 of this dissertation reports the results of surveys for Hymenophyllum wrightii, a fern with independent gametophyte populations in the Pacific Northwest, which improved our understanding of the range, distribution, …

The Role Of Trpm5 In Dietary Fat Preference, Intake, And Body Composition, Dulce M. Minaya

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

We recently showed a critical role of Trpm5 in the transduction pathway for long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. In the present study, I have begun to investigate dietary fat preference and the propensity to develop dietary-induced obesity in Trpm5^-/- mice. My preliminary data shows that in male mice placed on a high fat diet, Trpm5^-/- mice did not enhance their caloric intake as observed in wild type mice. Most surprisingly, however, was that I did not observe the same differences in between female mice, which posits a potential gender effect of this pathway on dietary fat intake. Also, …

Foraging Ecology Of Cougars In The Pryor Mountains Of Wyoming And Montana, Linsey Blake

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

We conducted this study to better understand the impact of cougar (Puma concolor) predation in the Pryor Mountains of Wyoming and Montana. Managers of the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area and the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range were concerned that cougars were having a negative impact upon a small, isolated Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis) population and were hoping predation might be limiting a feral horse population (Equus caballus) that was in excess of the Appropriate Management Level set by the Bureau of Land Management. Wildlife tourism brings revenue to the park …

Investigations Of Cho 1-15 And Silk Gland Cell Line Development, Susan Kathleen Robinson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The BioProcessing Demonstration and Training Laboratory was established with a collaboration between Utah State University and Thermo Fisher-Scientific, Inc. This lab was developed into a fully functioning tissue culture facility. Demonstration of tissue culture procedures were necessary for the lab to be industry-fully qualified. The CHO 1-15 cell line protocols were optimized by establishing conditions for reproducibility in shaker flasks and bioreactors (2 to 250 L capacity). CHO 1-15 is the cell line of choice for protein production in the bio-manufacturing industry. Oxidative stress is a problem in the industry because it can cause a decrease in protein production. Mesobiliverdin …

A Comparison Of Antlions, Bees, Darkling Beetles And Velvet Ants Across Sand Dune And Non-Sand Dune Habitats At Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Nicole F. Boehme

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge (AMNWR) supports nearly 30 organisms found nowhere else in the world. Most of these species are aquatic, dwelling in more than 50 seeps and springs within the over 24,000 acres of the refuge. Much of the research at AMNWR has centered on these unique and abundant springfed pools across the desert landscape. Many of the terrestrial habitats and species at the refuge have not been as well studied. In 2008, Bio-West, Inc. in Logan, Utah was contracted to inventory the terrestrial organisms present on the refuge. To investigate the terrestrial invertebrate fauna, with special interest …

Ecomorphological And Genetic Investigations Into The Utah Lake, Ut Sucker Complex With Comparisons To The Jackson Lake, Wy Sucker Complex, David D. Cole

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Natural selection within the sucker family of fishes has produced populations including typical benthic (bottom-feeding) suckers (Catostomus) and lakesuckers (Chasmistes), mid-water plankton eaters, in several large western North American lakes. Suckers of intermediate morphology (shape) exist in a continuum of head, mouth, and body characteristics between these two extremes. All current lakesuckers are listed Endangered, and population declines have been attributed in part to hybridization with their Catostomus neighbors.

Chapter 2 describes the investigation of the relationship between morphology and genetics of June sucker, a lakesucker, and Utah sucker, a benthic sucker, in Utah Lake, Utah. …

The Functional Role Of Cd36 Involved In Fatty Acid Transduction, Han Xu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As one of the most epidemic health concerns in the world, obesity has become a widespread health issue especially for the developed world. It is related to various health conditions including heart disease, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer. It is also quite costly. In United States alone, the medical cost of obesity in 2008 was estimated to be $147 billion. Many underlying mechanisms of obesity have been studied in the past few decades. However, the most prevalent cause appears to be simply an imbalance of energy intake and expenditure, resulting in the accumulation of body fat. On …

The Role Of Vegetation Structure, Composition, And Nutrition In Greater Sage-Grouse Ecology In Northwestern Utah, Brian R. Wing

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse) is the largest grouse species in North America and an indicator species for the condition of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems. The Box Elder Sage-Grouse Management Area (SGMA) in northwestern Utah encompasses one of the state’s largest sage-grouse populations.

To fill knowledge gaps regarding the population inhabiting the Raft River subunit of the Box Elder SGMA, I captured, radio-marked, and monitored 123 (68 female, 55 male) sage-grouse from January 2012 through December 2013. My purpose was to describe how the seasonal movements, survival, and reproductive rates of this sage-grouse population …

Systematics And Behavioral Evolution Of Spider Wasps (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae), Cecilia Waichert Monteiro

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Spider wasps form a diverse and widespread group of stinging wasps. Although all Pompilidae have similar life history characteristics, there is considerable variation in nesting behavior modes and, thus, this family could be useful for learning about the evolution of nesting behavior in insects. The nesting behavior of many species is well known, the family is monophyletic and easily recognized, and certain species have some degree of pre-sociality, i.e., communal nesting. All these factors suggest that the Pompilidae are an important model group for understanding mechanisms and patterns of behavioral evolution.

Pompilidae, however, are rarely studied and their research potential …

Physiological Effects Of Habitat Disturbance In The Wandering Gartersnake (Thamnophis Elegans), Austin Spence

Research on the Hill (Salt Lake City)

This study investigated the physiological effects of localized habitat disturbance around well-studied hibernacula of the wandering gartersnake, Thamnophis elegans. After three years of monitoring snake populations, construction occurred at two hibernacula. Individuals from the two populations with construction events were compared to a control population with no construction. At the time of emergence from the hibernacula the year following construction, blood samples were collected upon capture and again following a uniform stressor. The plasma was analyzed using a radioimmunoassay to measure corticosterone levels and a bacterial killing assay to measure innate immunocompetence. There were differences in baseline and post-stress …

Long-­‐Term Evaluation Of Leafy Spurge Biological Control At Richmond, Utah, Jacob Anderson

Research on the Hill (Salt Lake City)

Leafy spurge (LS) is an aggressive Eurasian weed that has been reduced in many areas in North America through biological control releases of flea beetles. Three flea beetle species were released in the mid-1990s at a site dominated by LS in Richmond, Utah. This study assessed the long term effects of LS biocontrol on the plant community at this site by addressing four questions:

(1) Is LS abundance significantly lower in 2013 than it was in the 1990s?

(2) What plant species are replacing LS and are they native or non-native?

(3) Have the flea beetle populations persisted since their …

Warming, Soil Moisture, And Loss Of Snow Increase Bromus Tectorum’S Population Growth Rate, Aldo Compagnoni, Peter B. Adler

Green Canyon Environmental Research Area, Logan Utah

Climate change threatens to exacerbate the impacts of invasive species. In temperate ecosystems, direct effects of warming may be compounded by dramatic reductions in winter snow cover. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is arguably the most destructive biological invader in basins of the North American Intermountain West, and warming could increase its performance through direct effects on demographic rates or through indirect effects mediated by loss of snow. We conducted a two-year experimental manipulation of temperature and snow pack to test whether 1) warming increases cheatgrass population growth rate and 2) reduced snow cover contributes to cheatgrass’ positive response to …