Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Solar Radiation And Soil Moisture Drive Tropical Forest Understory Responses To Experimental And Natural Hurricanes, J. Aaron Hogan, Joanne M. Sharpe, Ashley Van Beusekom, Sarah Stankavich, Samuel Matta Carmona, John E. Bithorn, Jamarys Torres-Díaz, Grizelle González, Jess K. Zimmerman, Aaron B. Shiels

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Tropical forest understory regeneration occurs rapidly after disturbance with compositional trajectories that depend on species availability and environmental conditions. To predict future tropical forest regeneration dynamics, we need a deeper understanding of how pulse disturbance events, like hurricanes, interact with environmental variability to affect understory demography and composition. We examined fern and sapling mortality, recruitment, and community composition in relation to solar radiation and soil moisture using 17 years of forest dynamics data (2003–2019) from the Canopy Trimming Experiment in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. Solar radiation increased 150% and soil moisture increased 40% following canopy trimming of experimental …

Comparative Susceptibility Of Eastern Cottontails And New Zealand White Rabbits To Classical Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus (Rhdv) And Rhdv2, Fawzi Mohamed, Thomas Gidlewski, Mary L. Berninger, Heather M. Petrowski, Alexa J. Bracht, Carla Bravo De Rueda, Roger W. Barrette, Meredith Grady, Emily S. O'Hearn, Charles E. Lewis, Karen E. Moran, Tracy L. Sturgill, Lorenzo Capucci, J. Jeffrey Root

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) is associated with high morbidity and mortality in the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). In 2010, a genetically distinct RHDV named RHDV2 emerged in Europe and spread to many other regions, including North America in 2016. Prior to this study it was unknown if eastern cottontails (ECT(s); Sylvilagus floridanus), one of the most common wild lagomorphs in the United States, were susceptible to RHDV2. In this study, 10 wild-caught ECTs and 10 New Zealand white rabbits (NZWR(s); O. cuniculus) were each inoculated orally with either RHDV (RHDVa/GI.1a; n = 5 per species) or RHDV2 (a recombinant …

Disturbance Ecology Of The Sonadora River Rock Pool Insect Assemblage At Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico, Patrick Gilkey

Master's Theses

Freshwater rock pools can serve as habitat for aquatic insects. Flash-flooding can have profound effects on insect communities in streams and rivers, but these effects have not been studied on freshwater rock pools. The goal of this thesis was to describe ecological patterns of the Sonadora River rock pool insect community at the Luquillo Experiment Forrest, Puerto Rico, specifically in response to intense flash-flooding, and then perform experiments to elucidate possible processes to explain those patterns. The rock pools contained primarily three taxa of Dipteran (true-fly) larvae, in order of decreasing abundance, 1) a newly discovered species of ceratopogonid (biting …

Critical Corridor: Survey Of Predator Occurrence And Habitat Use In A Threatened Rainforest Protected Area: Comatsa-Sud And Marojejy National Park, Madagascar, Patrick H. Ross

Theses

Madagascar is a nation praised for its floral and faunal endemism and biodiversity. Among the island nation’s most emblematic fauna are its native mammalian carnivores; they are members of the threatened and endemic Eupleridae family. The Corridor of Marojejy – Anjanaharibe Sud – Tsaratanana (COMATSA) is a system of forest protected areas in which three large protected areas are connected in northern Madagascar: Tsaratanana Reserve, Anjanaharibe Sud Special Reserve and Marojejy National Park which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. COMATSA is a newly protected and currently threatened corridor system that lacks detailed surveys and assessments of its native …

Wild Bees Respond Differently To Sampling Traps With Vanes Of Different Colors And Light Reflectivity In A Livestock Pasture Ecosystem, Roshani S. Acharya, Joan M. Burke, Timothy Leslie, Kelly Loftin, Neelendra K. Joshi

Entomology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Wild bees are important pollinators and monitoring their abundance and diversity is necessary to develop conservation protocols. It is imperative to understand differences in sampling efficiency among different trap types to help guide monitoring efforts. This study used a new vane trap design to collect bees in a livestock pasture ecosystem and examined the impact of six different vane colors on wild bee sampling. We recorded 2230 bees comprising 49 species and five families. The most abundant species were Augochlorella aurata (25.8%), Lasioglossum disparile (18.3%), Lasioglossum imitatum (10.85%), Agapostemon texanus (10.8%), Melissodes vernoniae (9.9%) and Halictus ligatus (4.7%). Traps with …

Genomic Tools Reveal Complex Social Organization Of An Invasive Large Mammal (Sus Scrofa), Chelsea L. Titus, Courtney F. Bowden, Timothy J. Smyser, Stephen L. Webb, James C. Beasley

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

A comprehensive understanding of sociality in wildlife is vital to optimizing conservation and management efforts. However, sociality is complicated, especially for widely distributed species that exhibit substantive behavioral plasticity. Invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa), often representing hybrids of European wild boar and domestic pigs, are among the most adaptable and widely distributed large mammals. The social structure of wild pigs is believed to be similar to European wild boar, consisting of matriarchal groups (sounders) and solitary males. However, wild pig social structure is understudied and largely limited to visual observations. Using a hierarchical approach, we incorporated genomic tools …

Maternal Responses In The Face Of Infection Risk, Patricia C. Lopes, Brenna M. G. Gormally, Aubrey Emmi, Delilah Schuerman, Chathuni Liyanage, Ursula K. Beattie, L. Michael Romero

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

When animals are sick, their physiology and behavior change in ways that can impact their offspring. Research is emerging showing that infection risk alone can also modify the physiology and behavior of healthy animals. If physiological responses to environments with high infection risk take place during reproduction, it is possible that they lead to maternal effects. Understanding whether and how high infection risk triggers maternal effects is important to elucidate how the impacts of infectious agents extend beyond infected individuals and how, in this way, they are even stronger evolutionary forces than already considered. Here, to evaluate the effects of …

Remembering Lanny Randolph, William Flack

Nebraska Bird Review

Nebraska's birding community suffered a great loss on June 17, 2022, with the death of Lanny Randolph, an enthusiastic birder and a good friend to all of us. ... Lanny ... resolutely continued birding. In May 2022, he was able to attend the NOU meeting in Gering, and to see many of his longtime friends for the first time since the COVID pandemic. But a month later, on June 17, he was taken from us. Lanny's no longer physically present among us. But for those of us who knew him, he'll always be there in our memories, an invisible presence …

Spring Field Report, March-May 2022, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

This spring there was a large number of interesting reports generated by active field observers, particularly in the west, where our knowledge continues to be broadened in all aspects. The main takeaway this spring was the inordinate plethora of species that matched or exceeded early arrival dates listed in BONO. There were no fewer than 70 species in this category, involving most families and genera, suggesting some overall influence on migration timing. Perhaps exceptions to these early arrivals were some lingering waterfowl and gulls although terns arrived early. Fully 50 of the early arrivers were passerines, notably including nine species …

Remembering Rosalind Morris

Nebraska Bird Review

Longtime NOU member Mary Rosalind Morris passed away in Lincoln on March 26, 2022, at the age of 101. ... Her membership in the NOU spanned decades, and she held the offices of vice president (1960), president (1975), librarian (1988-1989) and NBR editor (1992-1997). She was also a member of the Friends of Wilderness Park, Lincoln Naturalist Club, Wachiska Audubon, and the Nature Conservancy. For many years while on walks with her dog she picked up litter in Lincoln parks and on campus and received several environmental stewardship awards for her efforts. She is remembered by those who knew her …

Nou Spring Field Days And Annual Meeting, Gering, May 20-22, 2022, Janis Paseka

Nebraska Bird Review

The NOU Annual Meeting and Spring Field Days, organized by Kathy DeLara, Robin Harding, Jan Johnson, Alice Kenitz and Ruthie Stearns, was held in Gering on May 20-22, 2022, with 64 in attendance. This was the first time the organization had been able to get together since the meeting in Imperial in September of 2019. Our spring and fall meetings in 2020 and 2021 were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our meetings and meals took place in the Gering Civic Center. The weekend weather varied from cool and sunny to windy, snowy, or rainy, but the total species list …

Genomic Insights Into Mechanisms Of Microbial Evolution And Evolution-Inspired Strategies To Combat Pathogen Diversity, Saymon Akther

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

We live in an era of emerging infectious diseases that are increasingly common, rapidly spreading, and gravely devastating. Lyme disease, caused by bacteria belonging to the genus Borreliella, is rapidly rising in the Northern Hemisphere because of geographic range expansion of both the tick vectors and the pathogens. Evolutionary comparative analysis of Borreliella genomes is a key to understanding the phylogeographic history and mechanisms of their global diversification. Moreover, genomic variations in Borreliella associated with human pathogenicity, e.g., at loci encoding cell-surface antigens interacting with the vertebrate hosts, have not been fully identified. Similarly, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, caused …

Subscription And Organization Information (June 2022)

Nebraska Bird Review

The Nebraska Bird Review is published quarterly by the Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union, Inc., as its official journal, and is sent to members not in arrears of dues. Annual subscription rates (on a calendar-year basis only): $25 in the United States and $35 in all other countries, payable in advance. Single copies are $7 each, postpaid, in the United States and $9 elsewhere. Send orders for back issues to Anita Breckbill, NOU Librarian, c/o Music Library, WMB 30, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588-0101 (or at the email address listed below). Memberships in the NOU (on a calendar-year basis only): Active …

Rare Dark American Kestrel – Melanistic Or Sooty?, Joseph A. Gubanyi, Joel Rathe, Camden Sesna

Nebraska Bird Review

On April 13 in Seward County, we noticed a dark bird flying relatively low over fields east of Seward near 224th and Bluff Rd. Initially, because of its size, dark coloration and pointed wingtips, we were unsure of its identification and followed the bird to get better looks and identify it. We were able to observe and photograph the bird perched (Figure 1). We also observed the bird hovering and diving to the ground multiple times in search of prey. After better looks, based on size, wing shape, hooked beak, claws, and behavior (repeated hovering over field), we concluded the …

The Nebraska Bird Review Volume 90 Number 2, June 2022

Nebraska Bird Review

Spring Field Report, March - May 2022, by W. Ross Silcock ….46

Rare Dark American Kestrel – Melanistic or Sooty?, by Joseph Gubanyi, Joel Rathe, Camden Sesna …. 71

Remembering Rosalind Morris …. 76

Remembering Lanny Randolph by William Flack … 77

NOU Spring field Days and Annual Meeting in Gering, May 20-22, 2022 ….78

Subscription and Organization Information …. 87

Using Occupancy Modeling To Estimate American Marten Distribution In Michigan’S Lower Peninsula, Maria N. Weston

Masters Theses

The current distribution American marten (Martes americana) in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, USA is largely unknown. We used detection-nondetection data from a large-scale camera trap study encompassing 27,371km² of public lands on within the 1836 Ceded Territory to estimate marten occurrence across Michigan’s Northern Lower Peninsula. We modeled marten detection probability and occupancy as a function of covariates from two summer season that took place in 2019 and 2020. Model averaged predictions indicate high occupancy probabilities (ψ > 90%) when agricultural land was low (< 12% per 8km²) and canopy cover was high (> 85% per 8 km …

Epidemiological Assessment Of Wolbachia-Based Biocontrol For Reduction Of Dengue Morbidity, Olga Vasilieva, Oscar E. Escobar, Hector J. Martinez, Pierre-Alexandre Bliman, Yves Dumont

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

De-Coupling Cell-Autonomous And Non-Cell-Autonomous Fitness Effects Allows Solution Of The Fokker-Planck Equation For The Evolution Of Interacting Populations, Steph J. Owen

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Gene Drives And The Consequences Of Over-Suppression, Cole Butler

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Parameter Estimation Using Nudging On The Logistic Growth Equation, Susan Rogowski

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Bioeconomic Analysis In A Predator-Prey System With Harvesting: A Case Study In The Chesapeake Bay Fisheries, Iordanka Panayotova, Maila Hallare

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Water Quality And Fish Communities Of Crooked Creek, Tributary To The Allegheny River In Southwestern Pennsylvania, Katherine Stupar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Crooked Creek is a tributary of the Allegheny River with a drainage area of 292 square miles. It has been historically affected by mine drainage pollution. Extensive cleanup and monitoring efforts by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have taken place over the last four decades. Unconventional oil extraction, or fracking, presents an emerging threat to the water quality of this stream and the health of its fish communities. Here we perform an analysis of the Crooked Creek watershed utilizing backpack electrofishing, eDNA metabarcoding, and various methods of water quality analysis. Seven sites on …

Migration Ecology Of American White Pelicans: Circannual Movement, Geographic Range, And Annual Survival, Ryo Ogawa

Theses and Dissertations

Responses of migratory birds to seasonal climate and long-term environmental changes have been a central theme of avian migration ecology. Atmospheric conditions (e.g., winds and thermals), climate, and land cover and land use (LCLU) are major factors influencing the flights of soaring birds. Soaring American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) (hereafter, AWPEs) migrate between the subtropical Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and the temperate Northern Great Plains. American White Pelicans are also economically important piscivorous birds, causing enormous damages to the commercial Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) aquaculture in the Southeastern US. My studies aimed to evaluate the effects …

Pilfering Passerines? Inter-Class Competition: A New Direction In Foraging Ecology, Shannon Gillen

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Life in the epigeal layer below leaf litterfall often goes unexplored. Shrews (Soricidae, 1910) have foraged in this microhabitat for millions of years, carving out an existence in harsh habitats around the world, ranging from the tropics to subarctic boreal tundra. Two shrew species that inhabit the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, the least shrew (Cryptotis parva) and northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda), were the focus of this study. Shrews make epigeal foraging trails while they continually forage for food, and caching is a way to save this food for times of low and sporadic food availability. …

Hepatitis B And D: A Forecast On Actions Needed To Reduce Incidence And Achieve Elimination, Scott Greenhalgh, Andrew Klug

Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics

Viral hepatitis negatively affects the health of millions, with the worst health outcomes associated with the hepatitis D virus (HDV). Fortunately, HDV is rare and requires prior infection with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) before it can establish infection and transmit. Here, we develop a mathematical model of HBV and HDV transmission in Sub-Saharan Africa to investigate the effects of hepatitis B vaccination on both HBV and HDV. Our findings illustrate a hepatitis B vaccination rate above 0.006 year^-1 reduces hepatitis D by over 90%, and a vaccination rate above 0.0221 year^-1 reduces hepatitis B by over 90%, …

Seasonal Variation And Tracking Of Climate Niche Of A Migratory Bird, Javier Gutiérrez Illán, Guiming Wang, D. Tommy King, Fred L. Cunningham

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Migratory birds inhabit different areas during breeding and non-breeding seasons. Depending on the time of the year, they may utilize different resources available in seasonal habitats, but also are subjected to changing climate regimes during their annual life cycle. Migratory birds may adopt ecological niche tracking to cope with different environmental conditions between breeding and non-breeding grounds. The American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos, hereafter ‘AWPE’) is a short-distance migrant between the Gulf of Mexico coastal regions (nonbreeding grounds) and the Northern Great Plains (breeding grounds) of Canada and the US. The American White Pelican is a piscivore, feeding …

Detection, Occupancy, Abundance, And Mercury Accumulation Of The Alligator Snapping Turtle (Macrochelys Temminckii) In Texas, David Rosenbaum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Land use practices and physical alterations of ecosystems result in habitat loss and fragmentation, while chemical alterations, such as pollutant input, reduce habitat quality and health of exposed organisms. Here, I investigated the effects of watershed- and local-scale environmental variables on the occupancy, abundance, and mercury accumulation of a threatened aquatic species (Macrochelys temminckii, i.e., alligator snapping turtle) within the southwestern periphery of its distribution. Hierarchical modeling suggested the distribution of the species is more affected by watershed-scale land-cover than local habitat, and provided a baseline estimate of average species abundance across its range in eastern Texas. Abundance …

Striped Blenny (Chasmodes Bosquianus) Behavior And Shelter Use In A Southeastern Salt Marsh Tidal Creek, Brooklyn Johnson, Juliana Harding

Honors Theses

Temperate estuaries are important habitats for resident species and maturing juvenile transient fishes. The North Inlet estuary, SC resident fish fauna includes the Striped Blenny (Chasmodes bosquianus) and Crested Blenny (Hypleurochilus geminatus). Individual blenny males occupy habitat shelters year-round. During breeding season, blenny males attract mates to nest and protect developing embryos within the nest. Salinity requirements establish blenny spatial distribution in the estuary. Seasonal spawning activity by these temperate blenny species is related to water temperature and seasonal productivity patterns. Blenny nest site occupancy patterns relative to the lunar cycle, water depth, and salinity were …

An Application Of Differential Mathematical Modeling Techniques To Study The Ongoing Rabies Epizootic In China, Christopher Turner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rabies remains a global public health issue with a wide variety of neurological symptoms such as confusion, slight paralysis, hypersalivation, and hydrophobia. Rabies is usually fatal once symptoms appear. Many species are reservoirs for rabies, such as foxes, racoons, and wild dogs, which in turn can transmit the disease to humans, leading to complex transmission chains. There is a long latent period of rabies, between 1 to 3 months after infection, which further complicates control efforts. Mathematical modeling is a valuable tool in the study of infectious disease outbreaks and there have been many models applied to rabies outbreaks. However, …

The Potential Role Of Phenotypic Plasticity In The Ability Of Hydrocotyle Bonariensis To Occupy Two Different Habitats, Harold Ralph Parsons Iii

Honors College Theses

Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of an organism to change morphology and/or physiology in response to changes in the environment. Hydrocotyle bonariensis is a coastal perennial herb found in both coastal sand dunes and inland coastal plain habitats in Georgia. The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences in leaf morphology for populations of H. bonariensis in coastal sand dune and inland coastal plain habitats. Leaf morphology and microenvironmental variables were compared between H. bonariensis populations at Tybee Island (TI), GA, representing the coastal sand dune habitat, and Georgia Southern University Armstrong Campus (GSU) in Savannah, …