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Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Incorporating Biodiversity-Ecosystem Function Relationships Into Models And Conservation Planning, Sarah R. Weiskopf
Incorporating Biodiversity-Ecosystem Function Relationships Into Models And Conservation Planning, Sarah R. Weiskopf
Doctoral Dissertations
Unsustainable use of nature and climate change are leading to unprecedented biodiversity declines. These declines have cascading impacts on ecosystem function and ecosystem services, and ultimately on human well-being. International agreements have been adopted that aim to address both crises. The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015, set global emission reductions targets. In 2022, most countries agreed to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The GBF sets 23 ambitious targets for 2030 ranging from reducing threats to biodiversity, meeting people’s needs through sustainable use and benefit sharing, and solutions for implementation. Although adopting global goals and targets is an important first …
Timing Is Everything: Climate Change Implications For Phenological Events And Reproductive Success In River Herring, Meghna N. Marjadi
Timing Is Everything: Climate Change Implications For Phenological Events And Reproductive Success In River Herring, Meghna N. Marjadi
Doctoral Dissertations
Anadromous river herring (alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) and blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis)) make annual spring spawning migrations from the ocean to freshwater, where juveniles reside before emigrating to the ocean. Climate change may alter environmental and biological cues that prompt both adult migration and juvenile emigration, with implications for adult spawning success and offspring survival for these imperiled species. Shifts in adult migration have been observed in some rivers, while impacts on reproductive success and juvenile survival remain unknown. Cues for juvenile emigration are poorly understood as they have been explored at limited spatial and temporal scales. …
Patterns And Mechanisms Of Intraspecific Trait Variation Across Thermal Gradients In A Marine Gastropod, Andrew R. Villeneuve
Patterns And Mechanisms Of Intraspecific Trait Variation Across Thermal Gradients In A Marine Gastropod, Andrew R. Villeneuve
Masters Theses
As the earth’s climate changes due to anthropogenic emissions, it has increasingly become an imperative within the ecological community to understand existing species adaptations to climate change. Much focus has been paid to how a species might react to climate change, but the role of locally adapted traits and responsible environmental mechanisms have received less attention. Quantifying how sublethal (e.g. growth rates) and lethal (e.g. thermal tolerance) trait performance vary between populations can thus improve our understanding of how populations, and the entire species, will react to climate change. Here, I quantified the spatial patterns of performance of several traits …
Modeling The Abundance And Distribution Of Terrestrial Plants Through Space And Time, Caroline Curtis
Modeling The Abundance And Distribution Of Terrestrial Plants Through Space And Time, Caroline Curtis
Doctoral Dissertations
Anthropogenically-driven changes threaten ecosystems and species over regional to global scales. I addressed several questions related to how species ranges will respond to these changes over large spatial and temporal extents to better understand what determines where a species occurs. First, I modeled presence and abundance of two widespread invasive plants in the southwest U.S. under current and projected future climatic conditions, from which I inferred impact risk. These results provide more insight than presence modeling alone and highlight the possibility of increased invasion pressure in the future. Second, I tested the assumption that expert-based climatic tolerance data will better …
The Effects Of Anthropogenic Stress On Nitrogen-Cycling Microbial Communities In Temperate And Tropical Soils, George S. Hamaoui Jr.
The Effects Of Anthropogenic Stress On Nitrogen-Cycling Microbial Communities In Temperate And Tropical Soils, George S. Hamaoui Jr.
Doctoral Dissertations
In this dissertation several research studies are discussed that characterize the effects of anthropogenic, or human-induced, stress on both ammonia-oxidizing and total bacterial soil microbial communities. The disturbances of land-use change in tropical, South American rainforests and artificial warming and nitrogen (N) fertilization in temperate, North American forests were investigated as these disturbances represent past and current disturbances caused by human landscape alteration and climate change. Initially, the response of soil ammonia-oxidizing microbial communities to land-use change from primary rainforest to pasture and, finally, back to secondary forest was determined. Next, these analyses of land-use change effects were expanded to …