Biology Commons^™

Characterizing The Ecology Of Plains (Spilogale Interrupta) And Eastern (Spilogale Putorius) Spotted Skunks: A Systematic Literature Review And Population Assessment In Kansas, Jenell De La Peña

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The plains spotted skunk (Spilogale interrupta) has recently been recognized as a distinct species from the eastern spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius). While once abundant across the central and eastern United States, both species have experienced population declines, resulting in their review for listing under the Endangered Species Act (1973). In Kansas, the plains spotted skunk has suffered a particularly dramatic decline, the last detection in the state having occurred in 2020. Additionally, due to the recent taxonomic split, many past studies reporting on S. putorius ecology actually describe findings of two species, potentially complicating our understanding …

Habitat And Demography Of The Ozark Chinquapin (Castanea Ozarkensis) At Roaring River State Park In Barry County, Missouri, Danielle Evilsizor

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The Ozark chinquapin, Castanea ozarkensis Ashe, is a chestnut tree with a range concentrated in the Interior Highlands of North America. Like other North American members of Castanea, it was reduced from an overstory tree to an understory shrub by the invasive chestnut blight fungus (Cryphonectria parasitica [Murrill] M.E. Barr) during the early 20^th century. However, relatively little is known about the habitat of this species or its health and reproductive capability post chestnut blight. Chapter one of this study analyzed the habitat of this species through a random forest species distribution model (SDM) to predict where …

Secondary Channel Backwaters May Be Superior Nurseries For Native Fishes In The San Juan River Of The American Southwest, But Monsoon-Driven Deteriorations May Lessen Their Quality, Blake Hansen

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The Razorback Sucker (Xyrauchen texanus) and Colorado Pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius) are federally-endangered species occurring in the San Juan River of NM, CO, and UT, USA. These species have shown little natural recruitment in this system, with a lack of high-quality nursery habitats being one potential explanation for this phenomenon. The young-of-year of both species prefer backwaters, including those that form in secondary channels or in association with islands. However, it is unknown how factors that could limit imperiled fish recruitment, such as hydrologic stability, physicochemical features, resource availability, and nonnative fish densities, differ between secondary channel …

Population Dynamics And Habitat Use By Gray Bats In An Anthropogenically Altered Landscape, Haley Price

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Habitat loss resulting from land use change is among the greatest threats to biodiversity. Yet, in some cases, imperiled wildlife species may benefit from anthropogenic disturbance. The expansion of urbanization, agriculture, renewable energy, and mining practices impact conservation efforts for threatened and endangered bat species, and particularly species that are affected by white nose syndrome (WNS). The federally endangered gray bat (Myotis grisescens) is a cavernicolous species that is susceptible to WNS. Due to their unique roosting and foraging requirements, gray bats inhabit a small portion of the accessible caves within their geographic range. As habitat loss persists, …

Documenting The Rapidly Expanding Distribution Of Invasive Ravenna Grass (Tripidium Ravennae) Eastern In Kansas, Rachel A. Styers

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Invasive species cause significant ecological losses in the United States where they cost approximately $21 billion dollars a year to manage (Fantle-Lepczyk et al., 2022). Early detection of new invasive species, coupled with a rapid response of management efforts, can help to slow the ecological and economic impacts caused by these habitat invaders. Tripidium ravennae (L.) H. Scholz (or Ravenna grass) is a tall, robust, cespitose grass known to occur in Kansas, although its distribution remained poorly documented prior to this study. Given its known invasive tendencies, it has been declared noxious in at least six US states. Coupled with …

Comparison Of Threatened Neosho Madtom Densities Between Riverscapes Differing In Anthropogenic Stressors, With A Particular Focus On Recovery From Mining-Derived Metal Pollution, Kali Boroughs

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Water pollution imperils the Neosho Madtom (Noturus placidus), which is threatened in Kansas and federally. Within Kansas madtom densities were historically lower in the Spring River compared to the Cottonwood and Neosho Rivers, especially within the Spring River below tributary inputs that delivered cadmium, lead, and zinc pollution from the Tri-State Mining District. Studies suggest that madtoms are less numerous in waters containing elevated metal concentrations because of direct toxicity and lower benthic macroinvertebrate availability, which is also depressed by elevated metal concentrations. However, long-term reductions in metal concentrations in the Spring River have occurred, but to date …

A Survey Of Leaf Venation In New Caledonian Syzygium (Myrtaceae), Jiawei Xu Montojo

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

New Caledonia is a globally recognized biodiversity ‘hotspot’ characterized by a rich flora and a large number of endemic species. Syzygium Gaertn., the largest genus of woody plants in the world, is common in New Caledonia with approximately 70 species. A comparative survey of leaf morphology and architectural traits among 27 species of New Caledonian Syzygium was conducted, focusing on leaf venation patterns. Separate and detailed descriptions of leaf morphology and leaf venation characters are provided for the species. In addition to morphological differences, this study found differences at the species level among characters such as the number of intramarginal …

A Study On Ecological Distribution Of And Selected Gene Expression In Amblyomma Americanum: An Insight Into The Alpha-Galactose Allergy Caused By Tick Bites, Leah Cuthill

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Ticks transmit a wide variety of pathogens including viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and helminthes to vertebrates. Their life cycle depends on blood meals from various hosts as well as on environmental conditions such as the temperature and habitat type. A newly recognized allergic disease has been identified and is characterized by a delayed reaction following the consumption of some mammalian meats. The allergy often results in life threatening reactions such as anaphylaxis, hives, and breathing problems 3-6 hours after the consumption of mammalian meat. Not everyone develops the allergy when they are bitten by a lone star tick, and the cause …

Impacts Of Residential Garden Practice On Bird And Butterfly Communities In Southeast Kansas, Katie Mcmurry

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Ecological research indicates that global species richness is declining due to a combination of urbanization and human population growth that fragments and simplifies the landscape. As these rates continue to grow, the value of urban greenspaces increases. If managed properly, residential greenspaces can help to maintain species richness and mitigate landscape simplifications. However, residential greenspaces are often the result of a number of individual management decisions that are vastly different from historically native vegetation. Additionally, management decisions are closely related to a number of sociodemographic factors such as age, education, home ownership, and income that influences management behaviors. I surveyed …

Effects Of Experimental Forest Management On Avian Communities In The Missouri Ozarks, David R. Hollie

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

In recent decades, concern for migratory birds has stimulated research assessing the relationships between forest management and bird populations. The Missouri Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project (MOFEP) is a long-term, landscape-scale experiment designed to examine the effects of even-aged (i.e. clearcutting), uneven-aged (i.e. selection cutting), and no harvest forest management on ecosystem level processes. The management systems were randomly assigned to three sites each (mean area = 400 ha) under a 100-year rotation with a 15-year re-entry period.

In the first chapter, we used non-metric multidimensional scaling and generalized linear mixed models to investigate the effects of silvicultural treatment and year-since-harvest …

Floristic Survey Of Crawford And Cherokee Counties In Southeast Kansas: An Evaluation Of Change Over Five Decades, Samantha Pryer

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

This project had two main objectives. The first objective was to document comprehensively the vascular flora of Crawford and Cherokee counties in extreme southeast Kansas. Each county had seen limited collecting in recent decades, though a comprehensive survey had never been done for Cherokee County. PSU student E.S. Gibson summarized the flora for Crawford County in 1963. Fieldwork for the present study occurred mostly in 2014 and 2015. Based on 6500+ newly collected specimens, vouchers from Gibson’s study, and taxa documented by Biota of North America (BONAP) (Kartesz 2017), 1440 taxa are reported, which includes 33 state and 263 county …

Comparison Of Soil Development Rate In Reclaimed And Un-Reclaimed Grassland Soil, Abdullah Allahyani

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Soil formation is a process that entails the breakdown of rock particles otherwise known as weathering. It is a process that is determined by various factors such as time, climate, parent materials, topography, and biota. The exposure of the rock particles to these factors affects the process of soil formation in that more exposure accelerates soil development. To establish the rate of soil development, we based our research on reclaimed and un-reclaimed regions. According to the results, soil developed at a rate of 10-24 cm per annual while on the un-reclaimed land it was 0.05-0.06 cm per annual. The difference …

Herpetological Collections At Pittsburg State University: Assessing Collecting Patterns And Analysis Of Spatial And Temporal Origin Of Specimens., Natalia Agostini Schneider

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Natural History Collections are a rich source of biological data. Each specimen contains data for that species’ presence for a specific location and time, providing researchers with essential biological information. Importantly, this information can be preserved and re-evaluated for hundreds of years. To maintain specimens through time, good curation protocols are essential. The Herpetology Collection (henceforth HC) at Pittsburg State University houses 1,631 specimens, representing 181 species and subspecie collected from 23 U.S. states, Mexico and Manitoba, Canada. The majority of specimens (78.6%) were collected from the four-state area (Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma). Specimens collected exclusively in Kansas comprise …

Bacterial Diversity At An Abandoned Coal Mine In Southeast Kansas, Rachel Bechtold

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Bacterial Diversity at an Abandoned Coal Mine in

Southeast Kansas

An Abstract of the Thesis by

Rachel Bechtold

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is found in areas of abandoned coal mines in southeast Kansas as a result of mine waste rocks and tailings create problems for the local environment. Soil bacterial population acts as a reliable indicator of ecosystem health in these human-perturbed areas. The goals of the present study were to assess the bacterial diversity of an AMD site over a two-year period and to isolate acid-tolerant bacterial species for bioremediation purpose.

In fall (2015) and summer (2016), soil samples …

A Comparative Study Of Microbial Community Of Undisturbed And Reclaimed Soil In Southeast Kansas, Ghaidaa Allhyani

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this project is to compare the microbial communities of the 33 year-old soil at the Monahan with the original soil at the O'Malley. The data collected in this project investigates whether there is a correlation between soil age and the soil microbial community. Using soil DNA analysis is one way we can compare soil microbial communities. Soil DNA was isolated from multiple samples from both sites using DNA isolation kit. Using the community DNA as a template, eubacterial, archaeal, and fungal DNA fragments were PCR amplified using specific-primers. The amplicons were purified and are being processed for …

A Measurement Of Historical And Contemporary Functional Diversity On The Monahan Reclaimed Grassland, Jacob A. Heil

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

In 1984 a portion of the Monahan, a PSU Biology field site, was reclaimed to establish a native grassland community and to prevent runoff of acidic groundwater. In the years since then, several student projects have analyzed the vegetation community on the site, estimating the biodiversity found there. In this study, conducted in 2014, the biodiversity of the Monahan was measured using four indices of functional diversity. Functional diversity describes the variety of ecological functions in a community; functional diversity indices measure and describe these functions instead of individual species. Results from two past graduate theses were compared to the …

Changes In Estrogen Receptor Alpha (Erα) Phosphorylation In Human T Cells, Samantha Meneely

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Estrogen has two receptor proteins, estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and estrogen receptor beta (ERβ). ERα can undergo multiple post-transcriptional modifications (PTMs); however, relatively little is known about the function and regulation of any of the PTMs that ERα can potentially undergo, especially in vivo. In total, 19 phosphorylation sites have been identified in ERα thus far, and most sites contain a Ser-Pro motif. Different pathways are responsible for the phosphorylation of different sites. These pathways include mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling, IkappaB kinase complex alpha (IKKα), cyclin-dependent kinase 7 (CDK7), a subunit of transcription factor II H, protein kinase B …

The Reptiles Of Cherokee County, Kansas, Myron Alec Hurd

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Cherokee County has an area of 585 square miles. The greater part is covered with hydrophytes and mesophytes, but there are some Xerophytic areas. A large part of its area is covered with typical prairie grassland. Thickets of plum, sumac, persimmon, hawthorne, blackberry, and buck brush occur in pastures and wastelands. Along the streams may be found the elm-ask-oak assocations and other plants. Along the embankments may be found blackberry, sumac, and wild rose. Surrounding the ponds and marsh areas are rushes, reeds, button willows, and willows.

The mean annual temperature is 56 degrees fahrenheit. The three summer months average …