Biology Commons^™

Effects Of Predator Urine On Deterring Ungulate Browsing Of Aspen On The Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, Savanah Walker

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"In the Pacific Northwest, quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) support large amounts of biodiversity and are considered second only to riparian zones. Due to aspen's ecological importance and recent decline on Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge (TNWR), increasing aspen regeneration is of high priority. The elk (Cervus elaphus) population on TNWR has greatly increased over the last decade and over browsing is attributed as a factor affecting aspen regeneration. In response to the decline of aspen regeneration, TNWR initiated an elk hunt in 2010 to cull and disperse elk. However, hunting is not a viable solution in public use areas of the …

Riparian Understory Dynamics And Relationship To Dams On The Elwha River, Washington, Aaron J. Clausen

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"Dams alter the dynamics inherent to river systems by displacing natural hydrologic and sediment regimes, which can fundamentally alter riparian ecosystem function. However, with better understanding of how dams negatively impact river systems, and as many dams approach the end of their lifespan, dam removal is being used to facilitate ecosystem restoration. Whereas researchers have successfully illustrated the negative impacts dams have on biological communities, the long-term ecological implications of dam removal are not well understood. At present, two dams are being removed along the Elwha River (Washington, USA), providing a valuable window for ecological studies concerning the effects of …

Plant Community Restoration On Mima Mounds At Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, Wa, Brandy K. Reynecke

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"Prevention and management of exotic plant species invasion can diminish their negative ecological and economic impacts and maintain ecological functions provided by native species. This is particularly important in rare landscapes that provide essential habitat. The most successful management plans integrate techniques to reduce invasive species abundance, increase native species abundance and reduce invasibility. Eastern Washington's Channeled Scablands bioregion has highly fragmented remnant patches of grassland underlain by glacial alluvium and basalt bedrock that are dotted with Mima mounds (naturally occurring aggregations of fine particle soil). The mounds provide valuable habitat for native plants and animals and many have been …

Resident Fish Community Impacts On Stocked Rainbow Trout Ecology In 15 Eastern Washington Lakes, Kevin Mahoney

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"The principal purpose of this research was to analyze the effects of resident fish communities and lake habitat on energy source use and trophic position of stocked rainbow trout. Stable isotope analysis was used to accomplish this goal, with stable carbon isotope ratios indicating the source of carbon, pelagic or littoral, in each species' diet and stable nitrogen isotope ratios determining species' relative trophic positions. The research was conducted in 15 eastem Washington State lakes, all stocked with rainbow trout for sport fishing purposes. I found wide confidence intervals around the % estimated littoral carbon in most of the lakes. …

Effects Of Reactive Oxygen Species On Life History Traits Of Caenorhabditis Elegans, Samson William Smith

Dissertations and Theses

Evolutionary life history theory predicts that tradeoffs among fitness-related phenotypes will occur as a result of resource limitations and/or physiological constraints. Such tradeoffs are defined as the cost(s) incurred on one component of fitness (e.g., reproduction) by the increased expression of another fitness-related trait (e.g., longevity). Only recently have researchers begun to investigate the mechanistic bases of life history tradeoffs. A recent proposal is that reactive oxygen species (ROS) have a central role in shaping life history traits and tradeoffs. Research on disparate animal taxa has highlighted strong correlations between oxidative stress resistance and fitness-related life history traits, for example. …

Externally-Expressed Fluorescence Across Sexes, Life Stages, And Species Of Spiders, Erin Brandt

Dissertations and Theses

Although all spiders possess fluorophores in their hemolymph, the expression of external fluorescence is much more restricted. The purpose of this study was to evaluate differences in externally-expressed fluorescence between sexes, life stages, and species of spiders. To approach this question, we developed novel instrumentation to capture fluorescence with photographs of our specimens. We paired these fluorescence measurements with spectrometer measurements to attempt to determine the role that fluorescence plays in the overall coloration in spiders. The study was divided into four sections. First, we examined how fluorescence varies in sexes and life stages in Misumena vatia, an ambush predator …

Use Of Two-Dimensional Agarose-Gel Analysis To Characterize Processing Of Uv-Irradiated Plasmids And The Composition Of The Replisome Following Uv-Induced Arrest, Harout Arthur Jeiranian

Dissertations and Theses

In this thesis, I address two fundamental questions related to our understanding of how DNA damage is processed and repaired during replication. Using Two-dimensional (2-D) agarose gel analysis, I first examine whether DNA damage on plasmids introduced by transformation is processed in a manner similar to that observed on endogenously replicating plasmids and the chromosome. The original intent for using this approach was to develop a technique that could examine how different DNA adducts would be repaired in various sequence contexts. However, I found that distinct differences exist between the processing of DNA damage on transforming plasmids and the chromosome. …

An Improved Competitive Inhibition Enzymatic Immunoassay Method For Tetrodotoxin Quantification, James P. Strange, Becky L. Williams, Susannah S. French

Biology Faculty Publications

Quantifying tetrodotoxin (TTX) has been a challenge in both ecological and medical research due to the cost, time and training required of most quantification techniques. Here we present a modified Competitive Inhibition Enzymatic Immunoassay for the quantification of TTX, and to aid researchers in the optimization of this technique for widespread use with a high degree of accuracy and repeatability.

Saté-Ii: Very Fast And Accurate Simultaneous Estimation Of Multiple Sequence Alignments And Phylogenetic Trees, Kevin Liu, Tandy J. Warnow, Mark T. Holder, Serita M. Nelesen

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Highly accurate estimation of phylogenetic trees for large data sets is difficult, in part because multiple sequence alignments must be accurate for phylogeny estimation methods to be accurate. Coestimation of alignments and trees has been attempted but currently only SATé estimates reasonably accurate trees and alignments for large data sets in practical time frames (Liu K., Raghavan S., Nelesen S., Linder C.R., Warnow T. 2009b. Rapid and accurate large-scale coestimation of sequence alignments and phylogenetic trees. Science. 324:1561-1564). Here, we present a modification to the original SATé algorithm that improves upon SATé (which we now call SATé-I) in terms of …

In Depth Analysis Of An Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tear: Effects On The Mind And Body, Keimi Lew

Whittier Scholars Program

Injuries have always been a major concern for athletes; anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are among the most common serious injuries around. With the increase in reported ACL injuries, this has become a sort of epidemic especially among female athletes. Female athletes are three times more likely to experience a knee injury than a male athlete competing in the same sport. Since this increase in the last decade, researchers have developed several different hypotheses as to why females are more likely to experience these injuries. With these injuries there is a physical aspect, however, it is much more than that, …

Lycopene Cyclase Paralog Crup Protects Against Reactive Oxygen Species In Oxygenic Photosynthetic Organisms, Louis M. T. Bradbury, Maria Shumskaya, Oren Tzfadia, Shi-Biao Wu, Edward J. Kennelly, Eleanore T. Wurtzel

Publications and Research

In photosynthetic organisms, carotenoids serve essential roles in photosynthesis and photoprotection. A previous report designated CruP as a secondary lycopene cyclase involved in carotenoid biosynthesis [Maresca J, et al. (2007) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104:11784–11789]. However, we found that cruP KO or cruP overexpression plants do not exhibit correspondingly reduced or increased production of cyclized carotenoids, which would be expected if CruP was a lycopene cyclase. Instead, we show that CruP aids in preventing accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), thereby reducing accumulation of β-carotene-5,6-epoxide, a ROS-catalyzed autoxidation product, and inhibiting accumulation of anthocyanins, which are known chemical …

Inhibition Of Voltage-Gated Na+ Current By Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Field (Nspef) Is Not Mediated By Na+ Influx Or Ca²+ Signaling, Vasyl Nesin, Andrei G. Pakhomov

Bioelectrics Publications

In earlier studies, we found that permeabilization of mammalian cells with nsPEF was accompanied by prolonged inhibition of voltage-gated (VG) currents through the plasma membrane. This study explored if the inhibition of VG Na⁺ current (I_Na) resulted from (i) reduction of the transmembrane Na⁺ gradient due to its influx via nsPEF-opened pores, and/or (ii) downregulation of the VG channels by a Ca²⁺ -dependent mechanism. We found that a single 300?ns electric pulse at 1.65.3?kV/cm triggered sustained Na⁺ influx in exposed NG108 cells and in primary chromaffin cells, as detected by increased fluorescence of a …

Leptodactylus Pentadactylus, Miriam M. Heyer, W. R. Heyer, Rafael O. De Sá

Biology Faculty Publications

Adult Leptodactylus pentadactylus (Figure 1) are large, the head is about as wide as long, and the hind limbs are moderately long (Table 1; Heyer and Thompson [2000] provided definitions of adult size and leg length categories for Leptodactylus). Male vocal sacs are not visible externally or are moderately expanded as a single sac. Sexually active males usually do not have hypertrophied forearms (the largest male examined, 195 mm SVL, has very weakly hypertrophied forearms), only the largest males have a single small to moderate size black spine on each thumb. No males have chest spines. Dorsolateral folds are …

The Development And Morphology Of Zebrafish After Embryonic Ethanol Exposure, Frances Lee

Honors Theses

Maternal consumption of alcohol may subject the fetus to fetal alcohol syndrome or fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FAS or FASD). FAS/D is a public health problem, and affected children are defined by varying degrees of irreversible mental retardation, physical defects, behavioral issues, and vision problems from prenatal alcohol exposure (Riley et al. 2011). Recent studies on FAS have looked towards animal models, such as zebrafish, Danio rerio, that exhibit homologous physical and behavioral effects of alcohol (Bilotta et al. 2004). I exposed zebrafish embryos to low doses of ethanol (0.5% v/v or 1% v/v) in either chronic (at least 8 …

Demographics And Seasonal Abundance Of Sportfish In Three Thermal Habitats Of Coffeen Lake, Anthony Paul Porreca

Masters Theses

Power generating facilities across Illinois provide electricity to residents of the state, while at the same time offering desirable open water fishing lakes that can be used by anglers during the winter season when other reservoirs are not accessible. Coffeen Lake represents one of the best power cooling fisheries in the state and boasts both excellent largemouth bass and channel catfish populations. The reservoir supplies water to a power station with a generating capacity of 945 megawatts of electricity, with 73% of the surface water affected by heated discharge and a cooling loop covering 4.1 miles. Sampling sport fish species …

Population Demographics Of White Crappie In Three Illinois Reservoirs, Candice Marie Miller

Masters Theses

Crappie provide important sport-fisheries throughout the United States. Because of the propensity of this species to display growth stunting, an assessment of crappie population demographics is needed in Midwestern reservoirs. I assessed the population demographics of white crappie, Pomoxis annularis, in three Illinois reservoirs. Samples were collected by three-phase AC boat electrofishing. All crappie were weighed, measured, and the otolith and scale samples were removed for age estimation. Relative density, as measured by catch per unit of effort (CPUE; fish/hour), was different at Lake Mattoon (0.53±0.15), Lake Charleston Side Channel Reservoir (1.17±0.15), and Paradise Lake (1.04±0.18). Size structure of white …

Feeding Behavior Of Nestling Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia Sialis) In East-Central Illinois, Amanda Lamb

Masters Theses

I observed feeding of nestlings in Eastern Bluebirds in nest boxes in east-central Illinois. Provisioning rate of males and females were compared and early observation periods (younger nestlings) were compared with late observation periods (older nestlings). I also compared the average food size brought to the nestlings by males and females and during early and late observations. No significant differences were found between average food sizes throughout the study. In addition, food size was not significantly correlated with mean nestling weights within a brood. However, males had significantly fewer confirmed feedings than females for the last observation period. In addition, …

Linking The Colonization Rate Of Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizae (Vam) To Species Dynamics In Succession, Jie Luo

Masters Theses

Vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizae (YAM) are the most common mycorrhizal fungi that form symbiotic associations with plant species. They form hyphae, vesicles and arbuscules which expand root surface area and exchange nutrients within root cells. Greater abundance of YAM can result in more nutrient uptake and disease resistance to the host plant. While mycorrhizae are often important to the growth and reproduction of individual species, their role in regulating plant community dynamics is less clear. Previous research has shown that YAM are tightly related to plant traits such as relative growth rate, foliar N and P concentrations, and responses to soil …

Effect Of Reservoir Discharge And Sanitary Effluent On An Urban Stream, Daniel Hiatt

Masters Theses

Eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems may occur from several sources, primarily from anthropogenic inputs. Excess nutrient deposition can result in eutrophication and community compositional shifts in organisms located in impacted ecosystems. In the Sangamon River located outside Decatur, IL, discharge from the local reservoir, which receives inputs from both a city landscape and agricultural landscape and a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). These may result in a large influx of nutrients into this system. Increased nutrient levels have the potential to shift benthic periphyton, and macroinvertebrate communities and cause extinction of low tolerance native species. To examine the impacts of inputs for …

Multi-Partner Interactions In Corals In The Face Of Climate Change, Koty H. Sharp, Kim B. Ritchie

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

Recent research has explored the possibility that increased sea-surface temperatures and decreasing pH (ocean acidification) contribute to the ongoing decline of coral reef ecosystems. Within corals, a diverse microbiome exerts significant influence on biogeochemical and ecological processes, including food webs, organismal life cycles, and chemical and nutrient cycling. Microbes on coral reefs play a critical role in regulating larval recruitment, bacterial colonization, and pathogen abundance under ambient conditions, ultimately governing the overall resilience of coral reef systems. As a result, microbial processes may be involved in reef ecosystem-level responses to climate change. Developments of new molecular technologies, in addition to …

Trends In The Marine Aquarium Trade: The Influence Of Global Economics And Technology, Andrew L. Rhyne, Michael F. Tlusty

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

The marine aquarium hobby is a global industry with trade chains on six continents. This industry is undergoing rapid changes in hob byist preferences that are in part driven by global economies and technology. In an effort to better assess the past trends and help provide insight into future growth and demand, we assessed three different trade data sources, the United States-State of Florida Marine Life Landings, CITES stony coral imports, and United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s Law Enforcement Information Systems import data for ‘live rock’. Data for the past 10 years were analyzed and a clear trend of …

Volume 04, Matt Szemborski, Phillip Van Ness, Sarah Croughwell, Sarah Mayfield, Alyssa Strackbein, Marley Kimmel, Stephanie Skipp, Jamie Yurasits, Katherine Taggart, Alex Leonhart, Kristen Rawls, Andrew Armes, Amanda Haymens, Allison Paqlowski, Erica May, Stephanie Lane, Luke Acree, Cassandra L. Wilson, Stephanie Pishock, Erica Hopson, K. Juston Osborne, Katheryn Grayson, Kyle Fowlkes, Jessica Cox, Kaity Byrum, John-Harwood Scott, Ashley Johnson, Samantha Hockman, Emily Staskiel, Nancy Macdonald, R. Kruger Bressin, Benjamin P. Bilodeau, Andrea Irby, Kristin Macquarrie, Sarah Bietsch, Elizabeth Bednar

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Please note that part of pages 92-95 are redacted, in the digital copy, due to a misprint of the original printed article.

Introduction from Dean Dr. Charles Ross

The Internal Other: Transculturation and Postcolonial Magical Realism in Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children by Matt Szemborski

Photography by Phillip Van Ness

Photography “Waterfall” by Sarah Croughwell

Romancing the Bite: Statistical Analysis of Young Adult Vampire Novels by Sarah Mayfield

Photography by Alyssa Strackbein

Photography by Marley Kimmel

Wine and Society in the Viceroyalty of Peru by Stephanie Skipp

Analysis of Claud Monet’s Impression, Sunrise by Jamie Yurasits

Exploring Meaning: The Lindisfarne Gospels by …

The Peaks Of Otter Salamander: Range Restriction Due To Interspecific Competition With The Eastern Red-Backed Salamander, Christina Fantasia, Timothy R. Brophy, Norman Reichenbach

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Photoproduction Of Ammonium In The Southeastern Beaufort Sea And Its Biogeochemical Implications, H. Xie, S. Belanger, G. Song, Ronald Benner, A. Taalba, M. Blais, J. É. Tremblay, M. Babin

Faculty Publications

Photochemistry of dissolved organic matter (DOM) plays an important role in marine biogeochemical cycles, including the regeneration of inorganic nutrients. DOM photochemistry affects nitrogen cycling by converting bio-refractory dissolved organic nitrogen to labile inorganic nitrogen, mainly ammonium (NH₄⁺).During the August 2009 Mackenzie Light and Carbon (MALINA) Program, the absorbed photon-based efficiency spectra of NH₄⁺ photoproduction (i.e. photoammonification) were determined using water samples from the SE Beaufort Sea, including the Mackenzie River estuary, shelf, and Canada Basin. The photoammonification efficiency decreased with increasing wavelength across the ultraviolet and visible regimes and was higher in offshore waters …

Cationic Amphiphilic Drug-Induced Autophagosome Accumulation Is Due To Autophagosome Sequestration Within Vimentin Intermediate Filament Networks Resulting In Prolonged Autophagosome Half-Life, Miriam Devorah Kleinman

Wayne State University Dissertations

Accumulations of autophagosomes and non-esterified cholesterol are

observed in several cell lines derived from lysosomal storage diseases,

including Niemann Pick Type C (NPC). The relationship between

autophagosome accumulation and lysosomal non-esterified cholesterol is

unclear. Exposure of murine hepatoma 1c1c7 cultures to the cationic

amphiphilic drugs (CADs) U18666A, imipramine and clozapine caused

lysosomal non-esterified cholesterol and autophagosome accumulation.

Measurement of LC3-II conversion in the presence of lysosomal inhibitors

bafilomycin A1 and NH4Cl, degradation of long-lived proteins, and

colocalization of GFP-LC3 and LAMP1 indicated an increase in

autophagosome synthesis without compensatory increase in clearance.

Autophagosome synthesis was blocked using 3-MA to monitor …

"Release Factor 2 (Rf2) Is A Key Structural Component Found In The Ribosomes Of All Prokaryotic Organisms…", Zachary Wise

Summer Community of Scholars Posters (RCEU and HCR Combined Programs)

No abstract provided.

Biology Department Newsletter, No.2, Sacred Heart University

Biology Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Toxoplasma On The Brain: Understanding Host-Pathogen Interactions In Chronic Cns Infection, Sushrut Kamerkar, Paul H. Davis

Biology Faculty Publications

Toxoplasma gondii is a prevalent obligate intracellular parasite which chronically infects more than a third of the world’s population. Key to parasite prevalence is its ability to form chronic and nonimmunogenic bradyzoite cysts, which typically form in the brain and muscle cells of infected mammals, including humans. While acute clinical infection typically involves neurological and/or ocular damage, chronic infection has been more recently linked to behavioral changes. Establishment and maintenance of chronic infection involves a balance between the host immunity and parasite evasion of the immune response. Here, we outline the known cellular interplay between Toxoplasma gondii and cells of …

A New Baseline For Diadema Antillarum, Echinometra Viridis, E. Lucunter, And Eucidaris Tribuloides Populations Within The Cayos Cochinos Mpa, Honduras, Paul Bologna, Lucy Webb-Wilson, Patrick Connelly, James E. Saunders

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We investigated the density of 4 urchin species from 5 shallow reefs in the Cayos Cochinos Marine Protected Area in Honduras. Individual species density varied among reefs with total urchin density ranging from 3.2–7.9 individuals/m². Echinometra viridis (Agassiz, 1863) was the numerically dominant species (2.29/m²) followed by E. lucunter (Linnaeus, 1758) (1.76/m²) with Eucidaris tribuloides (Lamarck 1816) representing the fewest individuals (0.42/m²). Our results indicated that density of Diadema antillarum (Philippi, 1845) differed significantly among reefs (0.4-1.3/m², mean = 0.63/m²), but are three times greater than data collected …

Chrysaora Quinquecirrha Polyps In Barnegat Bay, Nj, Monica Katherine Buesser

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Sea nettles (Chrysaora quinquecirrha) have become abundant in the estuaries of the Mid- Atlantic States. Their ample numbers are an indicator of a disturbed ecosystem. Various factors have been attributed to the rise in numbers of sea nettles including eutrophication, overfishing, global warming, construction and species introduction. Bamegat Bay is a highly eutrophic system with excess nitrogen and organic carbon arriving in the bay via runoff and watershed waste inputs. Many commercial fisheries in Bamegat Bay have ceased to exist and the remaining fisheries are dwindling. An overabundance of medusae and polyps will further impact fisheries since jellyfish compete with …