Biology Commons^™

Bees In The Trap: Leveraging Bumble Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus) Bycatch For Ecological And Genetic Insights, Tori L. Strausser

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Managers rely on insect monitoring traps to detect insect pests that harm crops and protect food and other agricultural production. However, these traps also capture non-target insects, including bumble bees, raising concerns about whether repeated trapping could harm pollinator populations. This thesis explores whether bees caught as non-targets, also called bycatch, in routine pest monitoring traps can be used to better understand bumble bee populations, and whether traps pose risks to their long-term persistence. Using bumble bees collected from pest surveillance traps placed in crop fields across Utah, this research examined seasonal patterns in body size, timing of capture, and …

Land Condition Standards For The Western Australian Nullarbor Pastoral Region, Peter-Jon A. Waddell, Wayne J. Fletcher

Natural resources published reports

This report outlines the quantitative land condition standards that define acceptable pastoral land condition for the Western Australian part of the Nullarbor, to meet the regulatory requirements of the Land Administration Act 1997 and the Soil and Land Conservation Act 1945.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development is developing regional-level pastoral land condition standards for Western Australia as a critical component of the Framework for sustainable pastoral management – revised edition (Fletcher 2022), the purpose of which is to address the Office of the Auditor General’s recommendations to improve the management of pastoral lands in WA …

1 Billion Birds Lost: Mechanisms Of Window Collisions And Possible Mitigation Strategies At Lawrence University, Shoshana Schmit

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Windows are currently the largest killer of birds on the planet, with an estimated 1 billion birds dying from collisions annually. If birds that hit windows do not die on impact, they may either die elsewhere shortly afterwards, resulting in the number of carcasses at collision sites being a conservative estimate of the actual number of fatalities. During the day, proximity to foraging sites and reflectivity play crucial roles in the danger of windows, and during the night, artificial illumination emitting from windows disorients and inhibits navigational cues. To explore this topic on campus, I documented bird collisions at Lawrence …

Influence Of Pollinator Island Patch Size On Forb Establishment And Pollinator Networks In Palouse Prairie Restoration, Yaelle Esther Reeve

2026 Symposium

The Palouse Prairie Ecoregion is one of North America’s most endangered grassland ecosystems, with less than 1% retaining native vegetation. Restoration efforts have struggled to re-establish ecologically important native forbs and the plant–pollinator interactions necessary for long-term community stability. Spatial configuration of floral resources is known to influence pollinator foraging behavior and interaction network structure, yet few studies have evaluated how planting scale affects both plant establishment and pollinator community assembly in early-stage prairie restoration. My research aims to evaluate how variations in the size (0.1, 1, and 10 m²) of grouped wildflower plantings (pollinator islands) affect native forb establishment, …

Life Histories Of Two Sgcn Procambarus Species In East Texas, Mckenzie A. Adkins

Biology Theses

Within freshwater systems, crayfish play notable roles by shaping habitats and linking food web levels. Yet even with such influence, knowledge about numerous species is incomplete, which hinders protection strategies. Found only in the Neches River basin in eastern Texas, Procambarus nechesae and Procambarus nigrocinctus have different conservation statuses, mainly because data on their life history remains sparse. These two species are not closely related and are analyzed independently in this study. Research into traits tied to survival and environmental preferences was carried out so that informed decisions on conservation efforts can be made for these species. The goal of …

Morphological And Dietary Consequences Of Hybridization Between Mexican Ducks And Western Gulf Coast Mottled Ducks In A Human-Altered Landscape, Vergie Miranda Musni

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Hybrid zones provide unique opportunities to study morphological and ecological consequences of hybridization. While landscape genetic studies confirm a newly established contact zone between Mexican Ducks (Anas diazi) and Western Gulf Coast Mottled Ducks (Anas fulvigula maculatus), I provide the first quantitative morphological comparisons of the two taxa and their hybrids in Chapter 1. First, I report significant differences among parental species in lamellar density, body mass, tarsus length, and wing chord lengths, with hybrids exhibiting intermediate or backcross-aligned phenotypes. In contrast, measured bill dimensions did not differ significantly between parental taxa. Despite substantial overlap in bill morphology between Mexican …

Morphological Variation Of Lingual Glands In Wild American Alligator (Alligator Mississippiensis) Populations, Benjamin Angalet

Master's Theses

American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) inhabit diverse aquatic ecosystems including freshwater wetlands, swamps, and estuarine rivers. As apex predators, their physiological resilience has implications for ecosystem stability and long-term conservation. With projected sea-level rise and increasing saltwater intrusion into coastal freshwater habitats, understanding the osmoregulatory capacity of alligators is increasingly important. Unlike marine-tolerant crocodilians such as the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), which possess specialized salt-secreting lingual glands in addition to renal and cloacal mechanisms, the morphology and physiological significance of lingual glands in wild American alligators remain poorly understood. This study examined lingual gland morphology and plasma …

Relationship Between Ratio Of Hybrid Sunfish To Their Parent Species And Latitude, Maxwell Kattner

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Hybrid sunfish of the Lepomis genus make up a generally small but notable portion of the population of sunfish in Minnesota lakes. Hybrid sunfish play a significant role in freshwater ecosystems across the United States. They are both morphologically and behaviorally distinct in some ways and similar in other ways to their parent species, causing them to both fill and compete with their parent species for niches occupied by multiple Lepomis species. Despite this, the ratio of hybrid sunfish to their parent species has never been properly explored. This study observed if the ratio of hybrid sunfish to their parent …

Buzzes Over Burrows: Bats And Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs In Western Kansas, Patrick L. Geyer

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

The native grasslands of the Great Plains and the organisms that inhabit them are threatened by the anthropogenic disturbance of land-use change; prairie dogs (Genus Cynomys) are one such example. These mammals are considered ecosystem engineers due to their behaviors that physically modify the areas they inhabit, directly affecting the resources available to surrounding organisms. Much research exists on established or potential relationships between black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) and other taxa; until recently, one taxon group absent from mentions of an association with black-tailed prairie dogs was bats (Order Chiroptera). Results of acoustic studies in eastern …

Systematics Of Disk-Winged Bats (Thyroptera), Courtney L. Klumpp

Capstone Showcase

This thesis investigates the evolutionary relationships among disk-winged bats in the genus Thyroptera, a small group of Neotropical bats known for the adhesive suction disks on their wings and feet that allow them to roost inside tightly rolled leaves. The distinctive morphology and behavior of these bats have not been extensively documented, and their phylogenetic relationships remain only partially resolved. The goal of this research is to better understand how these species are related to one another and to determine whether the five recognized species of Thyroptera form a single monophyletic group. To address this question, morphological and genetic …

Parasite Party: Investigating Ecological Drivers Of Trematode Parasite Prevalence Across The Isles Of Shoals, Aimee D. Bousquet, April Blakeslee, Amy Fowler, David Buck

UNH URC Open (2026 and after)

Parasite Party: Investigating Ecological Drivers of Trematode Parasite Prevalence Across the Isles of Shoals

Improving Coral Restoration Outcomes Through Novel Molecular Applications, Matthew H. Gamache

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coral reef ecosystems are declining globally from numerous stressors, including localized pollution, disease, and marine heatwaves induced by climate change. To preserve these ecosystems, it is critical to identify corals that can withstand stressors—primarily future marine heatwaves—and prioritize them for coral restoration efforts until these stressors are mitigated. Coral responses to thermal stress can be influenced by several partners, including mutualistic microalgae and a vast prokaryotic community. Here, I use advanced molecular techniques to examine which partners (coral host, algal symbiont, and microbial communities) are associated with coral health, how they contribute to holobiont physiology, and their potential to increase …

The Inherent Values Of Observation And Description: A Case Study In The Spiny Solanums Of Australia, Christopher T. Martine

Faculty Journal Articles

The basic exploratory effort of doing descriptive biology is an avenue by which we can deepen our knowledge about taxa and the natural phenomena that drive their diversification. As Conniff (2011) wrote in The species seekers, “we still live in the great age of discovery”, and much like that historically recognized period of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there remains today a distinct need for the sort of work that might have been attributable to the naturalists of that time. The careful observation of how organisms go about their lives, including how they interact with one another …

Functional Ecology Of Antarctic Flora, Zoie C. Yetley

Dissertations and Theses

Antarctic mosses play foundational roles in terrestrial ecosystem processes, yet their functional ecology remains poorly understood. This study developed a novel functional trait-based framework for dominant moss species across glacier retreat gradients in the South Shetland Islands, addressing a critical gap in Antarctic bryophyte ecology. Nutrient- and water-related traits were measured for four moss species--Polytrichastrum alpinum, Bryum pseudotriquetrum, Sanionia uncinata, and Syntrichia saxicola--along with Deschampsia antarctica, across nine sites spanning early to late successional stages. Results revealed strong interspecific trait differentiation: P. alpinum exhibited conservative nutrient-use and rapid water-uptake strategies; S. uncinata and B. pseudotriquetrum …

Using Vegetation Communities To Compare Natural And Constructed Wetlands In The Red River Basin In Texas And Louisiana, Kennedi K. Davis

Biology Theses

Wetland vegetation provides an abundance of ecosystem services such as water quality regulation, flood control, and it provides habitat space for fish, amphibians, and macroinvertebrates. Not only that, but these plants also act as excellent indicators of wetland conditions as dominant vegetation types are often used as biological criteria for classifying wetlands and other habitats (Cowardin and Golet, 1995). This project will assess the structure of vegetation communities to determine how they differ in constructed and natural wetlands within the Red River drainage basin to see if Agricultural Conservation Easement Program – Wetland Reserve Easement (ACEP-WRE) constructed wetlands are effective …

Raptors As Secondary Dispersers Of Mycorrhizal Fungal Spores, Joseph Anderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Animals aid fungal dispersal by consuming fruiting bodies (e.g., truffles) and depositing spores elsewhere. Predators can act as secondary dispersers by preying on small mammals that eat truffles, although it is unclear how this dispersal may vary among species of raptors (hawks and owls) and fungal taxa. We experimentally fed four truffle taxa (with spores varying in size and wall thickness) to six raptor species (with differing gut morphology and acidity) to assess how spore viability and retention time may change between raptor casts and feces. Viability in smaller spores was more negatively affected by acidity compared to larger spores …

Using Herpetofauna To Determine Wetland Health And Function In The Red River Watershed, Shelby Rodriguez-Edwards

Biology Theses

Reptiles and amphibians are commonly used indicator species in wetlands because of their increased sensitivity to environmental conditions and use of both aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Herpetofauna can reflect wetland ecological functionality through their community composition and responsiveness to environmental stressors. This study evaluated reptile and amphibian communities in natural and ACEP-WRE wetlands within the Red River Watershed of northeastern Texas and Northwestern Louisiana to assess whether restored wetlands support herpetofaunal assemblages compares to their natural counterparts. Fifteen wetlands were surveyed from February to June 2024 using visual encounter surveys, call surveys, and standardized trapping methods to document species richness …

State And Transition Models For Mulga Rangelands Of Western Australia, Alison O'Donnell, Anna E. Richards, Suzanne Prober, Peter-Jon A. Waddell, Sarah Luxton, Ian Watson, Brett Abbott, Philip Thomas, Joshua E. Foster

Natural resources published reports

This report details a collaborative project between the Western Australian Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development and CSIRO that focused on developing State and Transition Models (STMs) for mulga rangelands in Western Australia. The overarching aim of the project was to improve the common understanding of the characteristics and dynamics of mulga rangeland ecosystems and the expected impacts of management. Specifically, the project aimed to collate expert knowledge and monitoring information using a nationally consistent framework to develop quantitative and dynamic STMs. The geographic scope of the project covers the extensive mulga rangelands of Western Australia, particularly the Gascoyne …

Temporal Assessment Of Fish Communities In A South Central Plains Ecoregion Watershed, Tara L. Schnelting

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

Among South Central Plains ecoregion fish communities, there is limited knowledge of the importance of headwaters yet this information is needed to understand their role in fish communities. I addressed this gap by assessing seasonal changes in fish communities in headwater streams of the Moro Creek watershed, Arkansas. I conducted two studies pertaining to temporal fish community assessments: (i) utilize multi-season, community occupancy models to estimate μ (species probability), Ω (community occupancy mean), and p (detection probability) and (ii) utilize beta diversity (β) analyses to address the diversity across different scales in the headwaters of the Moro Creek …

Ecology Of Beech Leaf Disease: Identifying The Forest Conditions Correlated With Infection In Northeast Ohio, Blake Logan

Research Symposium

Beech Leaf Disease (BLD) is a novel, poorly-understood threat to forests across North America. Since its discovery in northeast Ohio in 2012, the disease has affected staggering numbers of beech trees (Fagus grandifolia), resulting in increased sapling mortality. In the near future, mortality in symptomatic mature trees is expected to follow. The symptomatic striped leaves result from the activity of the nematode Litylenchus crenatae ssp. mccannii, but the precise role this organism plays in transmission and infection is currently unknown.

Oberlin College has been conducting forest demography research at Chance Creek, a nature preserve in Lorain county, since 1974. Every …

Designing An Optimal Thermal Preference Arena For Southern Cricket Frog (Acris Gryllus) Juveniles, Eleanor E. Briggs, David M. Phillips Jr.

Honors Theses

Climate change has been altering ecosystems across the world at a substantial rate, disrupting the delicate ecophysiological relationships between ecosystems and the organisms that live in them. Ectotherms, such as amphibians, rely on external temperatures to behaviorally thermoregulate, making it especially imperative to study their thermal biology. Thermal preference, which assesses the environmental temperature an organism would seek out in the absence of external stimuli, provides valuable information about an amphibian’s thermal biology and can be used to predict the effects of climate change on a species or population. A commonly used method to measure thermal preference is an arena …

Acoustic Monitoring Of Oak Toads (Anaxyrus Quercicus), A Longleaf Pine (Pinus Palustris) Ecosystem Endemic Amphibian, Alex Ward Foote

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The Longleaf pine ecosystem is one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world with only 3% remaining. Many endemic species to the longleaf pine ecosystem are also in decline and suffer from habitat loss resulting from fire exclusion, urbanization, agriculture, and industrial silviculture. Oak Toads (Anaxyrus quercicus) are a longleaf pine ecosystem obligate; the species is experiencing declines across its range and only has protections in Virginia and North Carolina. We used data from an array of Automated Recoding Units across four years (2013, 2014, 2015, 2019) at three state-owned wildlife management areas to capture audio files …

Climate And Gypsum Parent Material Shape Biocrust Communities And Moss Ecology In The Chihuahuan And Mojave Deserts, Katelyn Gobbie, Nicole Pietrasiak, Brian M. Jusko, Rebecca E. Drenovsky

2025 Faculty Bibliography

Biological soil crust communities (biocrusts) establishing on gypsum soils have been well-documented for their prolific appearance and rich diversity of lichens and bryophytes. However, studies characterizing gypsum biocrusts have occurred primarily outside of the U.S., most of which lack comparisons to other soil types. We conducted intensive field surveys to evaluate the ground cover and frequency of biocrust functional groups and moss species on gypsum and non-gypsum soils in the U.S. regions with the most extensive gypsum outcrops, the northern Chihuahuan and eastern Mojave Deserts. Study sites were stratified by geomorphology and paired, so that every gypsum site was matched …

René Dubos: An Annotated Bibliography, Carol L. Moberg

René Dubos: An Annotated Bibliography

René Dubos (1901–1982), a prominent 20th century scientist, humanist, and philosopher, was a prolific author. Affiliated for more than 50 years with The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research/The Rockefeller University, his studies ranged from antibiotics and the role of bacteria in human diseases to formulating broad ecological and environmental questions affecting human health and disease. His seminal writings explore a lifelong belief that a living organism—whether microbe, human being, society, or the Earth itself—could be understood only through its relationships with everything else.

This comprehensive bibliography of more than a thousand works by René Dubos includes brief annotations for each …

The Responses Of Insect Herbivores And Local Food Webs To Invasive Shrubs, Logan W. Huber

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Invasive species cause widespread ecological disruption and economic loss. Invasive plants in particular have the potential to reshape forest food webs from the bottom up. However, the extent to which herbivores colonize and assimilate invasive plants into their diets remains unclear. To address this, I surveyed caterpillar abundance, richness, and herbivory on two invasive shrubs, Lonicera maackii and Elaeagnus umbellata, across regions differing in infestation history. Lonicera maackii supported lower overall caterpillar abundance and richness but hosted a more diverse and abundant caterpillar community in the heavily infested region. E. umbellata supported robust caterpillar communities and experienced herbivory levels comparable …

Determinants Of Bat Activity And Habitat-Use At Runkle Woods And Huffman Metropark, Ohio, Heidi E. Orloff

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

North American bats are an excellent control of pests as most are insectivorous feeders. They face numerous threats including habitat loss, anthropogenic development, disease (White-nose Syndrome), and potentially artificial light at night (ALAN). It is important to track species populations and habitat-use to determine the magnitude of effects from these threats. Acoustic monitoring has proven a useful and non-invasive method for tracking bat populations. In my research, I conducted stationary acoustic surveys of bat activity at Wright State University’s Runkle Woods and nearby Huffman MetroPark during the summers of 2023 and 2024. I recorded bat calls in three different habitats …

Impacts Of Salinity And Drought On Growth And Carbon Sequestration In Acorus Americanus And Carex Scoparia, Eleora L. Mantle

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

From the late 18th century until the 1980s, Ohio lost close to 90% of its wetlands. Despite increased efforts to maintain what is left, many freshwater marshes are still being degraded due to pollutants, such as road salt, and the impacts of climate change. This study sought to understand how both road salt and drought could impact the health and carbon sequestration of two wetland species, Acorus americana and Carex scoparia, to better understand tolerance. To do this, both species were separated into groups and subjected to varying salt concentrations and drought conditions. After 9 weeks of treatment, plants were …

Benthic Algal Biomass And Productivity Across Depth Gradients In Lakes Michigan And Erie, Ahmed Ogidan

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Benthic primary production is poorly quantified in the Laurentian Great Lakes relative to phytoplankton-based production. We measured benthic chlorophyll and benthic primary productivity on soft sediments and Dreissena shells along depth gradients in Lakes Erie (2024) and Michigan (2025) during EPA Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative cruises. We measured benthic chlorophyll fluorometrically and estimated benthic primary productivity using non-invasive oxygen exchange incubations. We used PAM fluorometry to characterize photosynthetic-irradiance relationships on mussel shells and sediments in Lake Michigan. In Lake Erie, sediment chlorophyll ranged from 20 to 150 mg m⁻², with highest values in the central basin. In Lake Michigan, …

Frozen Green Leaves As Potential Nutrient Subsidies In North American Mangrove Ecosystems, Katelyn Overstreet, Emily M. Dangremond, Ilka C. Feller

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Avicennia germinans, the black mangrove, has shifted its range limit northward, and increased in abundance in the Southeastern United States. In January 2018, a 3-day freeze event caused substantial defoliation of green leaves in A. germinans near its northernmost range limit in St. Augustine, FL. During their recovery, plants that lost their leaves grew similarly to plants fertilized with nitrogen, leading to the hypothesis that freeze-killed green leaves (frozen green) may have acted as a fertilizer. To assess the value of frozen green litter as a nutrient subsidy, we performed an experiment in which A. germinans seedlings were grown …

A Blueprint To Greener Shorelines: Advancing The Effectiveness, Sustainability, And Widespread Adoption Of Coastal Nature-Based Solutions Through Transdisciplinary Research, Taylor M. Sloey, Sierra Hildebrandt, Rebecca L. Morris, Matthew V. Bilskie, Aaron Bland, David Bushek, Gabriella Dipetto, Daniel Elefant, Vincent Encomio, Ramin Familkhalili, Christine Hladik, Danielle Kreeger, Avery B. Paxton, Cindy M. Palinkas, Latina Steele, Andrew Scheld, Daisuke Taira, Jason D. Toft, Armando J. Ubeda, Christine Whitcraft, Donna Marie Bilkovic

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Coastal nature-based solutions (NbS) have emerged as powerful tools to enhance sustainable development and ecological restoration goals. As a rapidly growing field spanning across social, political, ecological, economic, and engineering disciplines, it is critical that researchers working in coastal NbS regularly attempt to identify emerging focal areas for scientific inquiry. Following the 27th Biennial meeting of the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation, we provide a transdisciplinary perspective (including biologists, engineers, oceanographers, geoscientists, economists, and facilitators of workforce training programs) of pertinent research questions that, if answered, will advance the effectiveness, sustainability, and widespread adoption of coastal NbS. These suggestions for …