Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Table Of Contents

Human–Wildlife Interactions

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Percussive Behavior In The Southern Resident Killer Whale (Orcinus Orca) Population At Lime Kiln Point State Park, Rylee Jensen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The endangered Southern Resident Killer Whale (Orcinus orca, SRKW) is an iconic species in the Pacific Northwest. Although many ecological aspects of this population have been studied, including population dynamics, genealogy, diet, and habitat-use patterns, why SRKW perform above-surface "percussive" behavior such as breaching, cartwheeling, pectoral fin slapping, tail lobbing, and dorsal fin slapping remains unclear. In the present study, a) individual percussive behavioral data was recorded during the summer of 2016 to evaluate trends by age and sex class, and b) an existing long-term data set on SRKW was analyzed to compare the relationship between the seasonal …

The Effect Of A Surfactant Seed Coating On The Germination And Growth Of Three Native Bulrushes, Anders Hart

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Great Salt Lake (GSL) wetlands provide vital ecosystem services, including habitat for migratory birds. Alkali bulrush (Bolboschoenus maritimus), hardstem bulrush (Schoenoplectus acutus), and three-square bulrush (Schoenoplectus americanus) play an important role in providing these services, but invasion by Phragmites australis has reduced the extent these species in GSL wetlands. Restoring these native bulrushes following Phragmites removal is a primary goal for GSL managers. However, climate change and increasing human water demands upstream may alter the hydropattem of GSL wetlands, leading to lower soil moisture availability and potentially inhibiting germination and establishment of these species. …

The Spatial Ecology Of Predator-Prey Interactions: A Case Study Of Yellowstone Elk, Wolves, And Cougars, Michel T. Kohl

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The loss of large apex predators, and their subsequent reintroduction, has been identified as a substantial driver on the structure and function of ecological communities through behavioral mediated trophic cascades (BMTCs). The reintroduction of wolves (Canis lupus) to Yellowstone National Park (YNP) has served as foundational case study of BMTCs. In our system, it has been suggested that wolves have established a ‘landscape of fear’ in which the primary prey, elk (Cervus elaphus), now avoid risky places, which ultimately led to the recovery of the vegetation community. Although this case is frequently cited as a well-understood …

Beaver And Aspen: Synergy Among Keystone Species, Stephen N. Bennett, Nicolaas Bouwes, Paul C. Rogers

Aspen Bibliography

In the West, climate change is likely to increase the frequency, intensity, and duration of drought. Restoration of soils and water storage capacity can help create resilient uplands and riverscapes (i.e., streams and the valley bottoms). Over the past two centuries, common land uses, the removal of beaver and wood, straightening of streams, and damage to riparian areas have created simplified, structurally starved, riverscapes. Degraded streams are very efficient at transporting water, sediment, and nutrients downstream. Aspen forests are also biological hotspots that have been degraded by past land uses such as overbrowsing ungulates, land clearing, fire suppression, and outright …

Biodiversity Within Aspen Forests, Paul C. Rogers

Aspen Bibliography

Aspen have long been known for supporting lush vegetation and rich wildlife habitat. These features, alongside brilliant green and gold seasonal coloration, accompany a broadly appreciated aesthetic for aspen forests by the public-at-large. However, in earlier times timber producers in many locales considered aspen to have low value and actively eliminated them. More recent research has pointed out that relative moisture held within aspen communities facilitates a wide array of species – collectively, biodiversity – compared to surrounding vegetation types. Aspen groves in the Intermountain West, for example, are known to be second only to riparian forests is supporting the …

Role Of Wildfire And Topography In Shaping Aspen Regeneration After The Hayman Fire, Co, Usa, Arianna A. B. Porter

Aspen Bibliography

Unusually rapid and widespread mortality in Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) has been documented throughout the 21st century primarily as a result of warm, dry weather conditions. Although aspen are not drought-adapted, aspen are well adapted to wildfire. Increases in wildfire severity and extent as a result of climate change may provide opportunities for aspen regeneration, especially at mid- and high-elevation sites. Aspen's sensitivity to drought suggests that regeneration following fire might be constrained to cooler and wetter topographic locations on the landscape which reduce drought stress on vegetation. While aspen mortality is demonstrated to occur at low elevation sites, aspen …

Burn Severity And Fire History In The Northwestern Canadian Boreal Forest: Drivers And Ecological Outcomes, Ellen Whitman

Aspen Bibliography

Wildfire is the dominant stand-renewing disturbance in the northwestern Canadian boreal forest. Fires burn extensive areas in Canada, disturbing an average of 1.96 Mha yr−1, primarily in the boreal zone. Fires generally occur every ~30 – > 200 years in this region, due in part to a lack of fuel that allows young stands to resist reburning. Boreal understory plants and trees are adapted to stand-renewing wildfire through mechanisms such as serotiny, seed banking, and resprouting from roots and rhizomes of top-killed individuals. Such adaptations confer resilience to boreal forests, and post-fire vegetation communities generally resemble the pre-fire ones, following a …

Conservation Of Threatened Canada-Usa Trans-Border Grizzly Bears Linked To Comprehensive Conflict Reduction, Michael F. Proctor, Wayne F. Kasworm, Kimberly M. Annis, A. Grant Machutchon, Justin E. Teisberg, Thomas G. Radandt, Chris Servheen

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Erratum to "Conservation of Threatened Canada-USA Trans-border Grizzly Bears Linked to Comprehensive Conflict Reduction". https://doi.org/10.26077/yjy6-0m57

Antipredator Mechanisms Of Post-Metamorphic Anurans: A Global Database And Classification System, Rodrigo B. Ferreira, Ricardo Lourenço-De-Moraes, Cássio Zocca, Charles Duca, Karen H. Beard, Edmund D. Brodie Jr.

Ecology Center Publications

A crucial step in any ethological study is to distinguish and classify the observed behavior into categories. The literature on anuran antipredator mechanisms is largely scattered and descriptive due to the opportunistic nature of the observations and the lack of a simple, widely accepted classification scheme. We propose an explanatory classification system of antipredator mechanisms for post-metamorphic anurans (i.e., juveniles and adults) based on a thorough review of the literature and observations made during fieldwork and in the laboratory since 1970. In addition, we provide a freely available global database on antipredator mechanisms of post-metamorphic anurans. The classification system is …

Impacts Of Cattle Grazing As A Tool To Control Phragmites Australis In Wetlands On Nitrogen, Phosphorus, And Carbon, Brittany L. Duncan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Phragmites australis is a plant that is causing problems in wetlands by outcompeting native plants that provide food and shelter for millions of migratory birds. Currently, managers try to control Phragmites australis by spraying herbicide, burning, and mowing, but these methods are costly, time consuming, and have low levels of success. Adding grazing as a tool to control Phragmites australis provides a cheap and low labor alternative. However, there are many concerns regarding if grazing will cause nutrient loading in our wetlands that will decrease water quality and alter beneficial functions of wetlands.

To better understand the effects of grazing …

Fire - Herbivory Interactions In An East African Savanna: Effects On Acacia Drepanolobium Trees, Eric M. Lamalfa

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Globally, changes in plant community structure have occurred in ecosystems where humans have altered natural disturbance regimes. Many plants have adaptive life histories and morphological traits that have coevolved with fire and herbivory, which allows them to thrive despite repeated tissue losses. Therefore, altering the type, frequency, or severity of disturbance affects individual plant growth and competition among species. When these changes benefit or disadvantage different plant functional groups (i.e., grasses, shrubs, trees) it alters ecosystem structure and function. Understanding and predicting these vegetation changes, is critical for conservation and management of biodiversity, wildlife habitat, livestock forage, and water.

Savannas …

Monitoring Desert Ungulates Via Fecal Dna-Based Capture Recapture, Stephen S. Pfeiler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Estimates of population abundance and survival are critical for effective wildlife management. Obtaining estimates of these kind using traditional wildlife monitoring techniques (i.e. ground and aerial surveys) has proven to be difficult, especially for species that are wide ranging and exist in small, patchily distributed populations.

My objective was to implement fecal DNA-based capture-recapture surveys to estimate abundance and survival of two different ungulate populations that inhabit the deserts of southeastern California. I also compared fecal DNA-based capture-recapture techniques to traditional methods by evaluating the costs and precision associated with both methods. Using artificial water sources as focal sampling sites, …

Understanding Wetlands And Irrigation In The Little Snake River Basin, Wyoming, Lindsey Washkoviak

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Little Snake River Basin (LSRB) is a managed basin in South-central Wyoming located within the Colorado River watershed facing severe water shortages. There is increased pressure on water resource managers and agricultural producers to adopt water efficiency practices that could negatively affect wetland resources. However, studies have begun to quantify the importance of irrigation for recharging groundwater, maintaining late season instream flows, and maintaining and creating wetlands that provide wildlife habitat and ecosystem services.

In the LSRB there are 11,636 acres of wetlands; 56% of which overlap with irrigation. Conversion to more efficient irrigation could reduce water availability to …

Multi-Trophic Species Interactions Shape Seascape-Scale Coral Reef Vegetation Patterns, Elizabeth M. P. Madin, Kristin Precoda, Alastair R. Harborne, Trisha B. Atwood, Chris M. Roelfsema, Osmar J. Luiz

Ecology Center Publications

How species interactions shape habitat structure is a longstanding question in ecology. A curious phenomenon reflecting ecological self-organization around reef habitat structures exists on coral reefs: large-scale (hundreds to hundreds of thousands of m2) halo-like patterns surrounding patch reefs, i.e., individual coral reefs that are often separated by seagrass or macroalgal meadows. These “halos,” long known to occur in various locations worldwide, reflect a distinct band of unvegetated sediments surrounding coral patch reefs. However, the full suite of mechanisms controlling them have never been rigorously explored, perhaps due to the common assumption dating back nearly 50 years that they arise …

Marine Reserves Shape Seascapes On Scales Visible From Space, Elizabeth M. P. Madin, Alastair R. Harborne, Aaron M. T. Harmer, Osmar J. Luiz, Trisha Brooke Atwood, Brian J. Sullivan, Joshua S. Madin

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Marine reserves can effectively restore harvested populations, and ‘mega-reserves’ increasingly protect large tracts of ocean. However, no method exists of monitoring ecological responses at this large scale. Herbivory is a key mechanism structuring ecosystems, and this consumer–resource interaction's strength on coral reefs can indicate ecosystem health. We screened 1372, and measured features of 214, reefs throughout Australia's Great Barrier Reef using high-resolution satellite imagery, combined with remote underwater videography and assays on a subset, to quantify the prevalence, size and potential causes of ‘grazing halos’. Halos are known to be seascape-scale footprints of herbivory and other ecological interactions. Here we …

Abiotic And Landscape Factors Constrain Restoration Outcomes Across Spatial Scales Of A Widespread Invasive Plant, Christine B. Rohal, Chad R. Cranney, Karin M. Kettenring

Ecology Center Publications

The natural recolonization of native plant communities following invasive species management is notoriously challenging to predict, since outcomes can be contingent on a variety of factors including management decisions, abiotic factors, and landscape setting. The spatial scale at which the treatment is applied can also impact management outcomes, potentially influencing plant assembly processes and treatment success. Understanding the relative importance of each of these factors for plant community assembly can help managers prioritize patches where specific treatments are likely to be most successful. Here, using effects size analyses, we evaluate plant community responses following four invasive Phragmites australis management treatments …

Phenological Mismatch Between Season Advancement And Migration Timing Alters Arctic Plant Traits, Ryan T. Choi, Karen H. Beard, A. Joshua Leffler, Katharine C. Kelsey, Joel A. Schmutz, Jeffrey M. Welker

Ecology Center Publications

1. Climate change is creating phenological mismatches between herbivores and their plant resources throughout the Arctic. While advancing growing seasons and changing arrival times of migratory herbivores can have consequences for herbivores and forage quality, developing mismatches could also influence other traits of plants, such as above‐ and below‐ground biomass and the type of reproduction, that are often not investigated.
2. In coastal western Alaska, we conducted a 3‐year factorial experiment that simulated scenarios of phenological mismatch by manipulating the start of the growing season (3 weeks early and ambient) and grazing times (3 weeks early, typical, 3 weeks late, or no‐grazing) …

Plant Community Responses To Stand‐Level Nutrient Fertilization In A Secondary Tropical Dry Forest, Bonnie G. Waring, Daniel Pérez-Aviles, Jessica G. Murray, Jennifer S. Powers

Ecology Center Publications

The size of the terrestrial carbon (C) sink is mediated by the availability of nutrients that limit plant growth. However, nutrient controls on primary productivity are poorly understood in the geographically extensive yet understudied tropical dry forest biome. To examine how nutrients influence above‐ and belowground biomass production in a secondary, seasonally dry tropical forest, we conducted a replicated, fully factorial nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilization experiment at the stand scale in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. The production of leaves, wood, and fine roots was monitored through time; root colonization by mycorrhizal fungi and the abundance of N‐fixing root nodules …

Climate And Lawn Management Interact To Control C4 Plant Distribution In Residential Lawns Across Seven U.S. Cities, Tara L. E. Trammell, Diane E. Pataki, Christopher J. Still, James R. Ehleringer, Meghan L. Avolio, Neil Bettez, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Peter M. Groffman, Morgan Grove, Sharon J. Hall, James Heffernan, Sarah E. Hobbie, Kelli L. Larson, Jennifer L. Morse, Christopher Neill, Kristen C. Nelson, Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne, William D. Pearse, Et Al.

Ecology Center Publications

In natural grasslands, C₄ plant dominance increases with growing season temperatures and reflects distinct differences in plant growth rates and water use efficiencies of C₃ vs. C₄ photosynthetic pathways. However, in lawns, management decisions influence interactions between planted turfgrass and weed species, leading to some uncertainty about the degree of human vs. climatic controls on lawn species distributions. We measured herbaceous plant carbon isotope ratios (δ¹³C, index of C₃/C₄ relative abundance) and C₄ cover in residential lawns across seven U.S. cities to determine how climate, lawn plant management, or interactions between …

The Role Of Disease & Insects In Aspen Ecology, John C. Guyon Ii

Aspen Bibliography

Aspen is a keystone species in montane forests, and enhances a number of key resource values including wildlife habitat, water resources, and fire behavior. Recently, aspen forests have experienced episodes of dieback and decline across western North America (Worrall et al. 2010, Guyon and Hoffman 2011). A large proportion of the dieback and decline has been linked to drought stress or drought-prone locations (Hanna and Kulakowski 2012). However, insects and diseases are commonly found in declining aspen stands, leading to confusion about the role of insects and diseases in aspen ecology. Additionally, aspen has a reputation for being susceptible to …

Chronosequence And Direct Observation Approaches Reveal Complementary Community Dynamics In A Novel Ecosystem, Andrew Kulmatiski, Karen H. Beard

Ecology Center Publications

Non-native, early-successional plants have been observed to maintain dominance for decades, particularly in semi-arid systems. Here, two approaches were used to detect potentially slow successional patterns in an invaded semi-arid system: chronosequence and direct observation. Plant communities in 25 shrub-steppe sites that represented a 50-year chronosequence of agricultural abandonment were monitored for 13 years. Each site contained a field abandoned from agriculture (ex-arable) and an adjacent never-tilled field. Ex-arable fields were dominated by short-lived, non-native plants. These ‘weedy’ communities had lower species richness, diversity and ground cover, and greater annual and forb cover than communities in never-tilled fields. Never-tilled fields …

Breeding Record Of The Hooded Vulture Necrosyrtes Monachus (Timminek, 1823) At Emi Abumo Woro, Kogi State, Nigeria, K. L. Adang, D. Tanko, K. L. Saliu, Umarfarooq Abdulwahab

Watershed Sciences Student Research

The hooded vulture Necrosyrtes monachus is a critically endangered species and recently published evidence suggests that its population is experiencing an extremely rapid decline, owing to indiscriminate poisoning, trade for traditional medicine, hunting, persecution, electrocution, habitat loss and degradation. As a result of these threats, the species is gradually disappearing from its range and thus, the sighting of vultures or their nests is becoming very rare. This paper thus, presents a report on the sighting of the Hooded Vulture and its nest at Emi Abumo Woro Village, Kogi State, Nigeria. This is an evident and equally an indication that Emi …

Surface Fire To Crown Fire: Fire History In The Taos Valley Watersheds, New Mexico, Usa, Lane B. Johnson, Ellis Q. Margolis

Aspen Bibliography

Tree-ring fire scars, tree ages, historical photographs, and historical surveys indicate that, for centuries, fire played different ecological roles across gradients of elevation, forest, and fire regimes in the Taos Valley Watersheds. Historical fire regimes collapsed across the three watersheds by 1899, leaving all sites without fire for at least 119 years. Historical photographs and quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) ages indicate that a high-severity fire historically burned at multiple high-elevation subalpine plots in today’s Village of Taos Ski Valley, with large high-severity patches (>640 ha). Low-severity, frequent (9–29-year median interval) surface fires burned on the south aspects …

Migratory Goose Arrival Time Plays A Larger Role In Influencing Forage Quality Than Advancing Springs In An Arctic Coastal Wetland, Karen H. Beard, Ryan T. Choi, A. Joshua Leffler, Lindsay G. Carlson, Katharine C. Kelsey, Joel A. Schmutz, Jeffrey M. Welker

Ecology Center Publications

With warmer springs, herbivores migrating to Arctic breeding grounds may experience phenological mismatches between their energy demands and the availability of high quality forage. Yet, how the timing of the start of the season and herbivore arrival influences forage quality is often unknown. In coastal western Alaska, approximately one million migratory geese arrive each spring to breed, where foliar %N and C:N ratios are linked to gosling survival and population growth. We conducted a three-year experiment where we manipulated the start of the growing season using warming chambers and grazing times using captive Pacific black brant (Branta bernicla nigricans) to …

Weak Spatiotemporal Response Of Prey To Predation Risk In A Freely Interacting System, Jeremy J. Cusack, Michel T. Kohl, Matthew C. Metz, Tim Coulson, Daniel R. Stahler, Douglas W. Smith, Daniel R. Macnulty

Ecology Center Publications

1. The extent to which prey space use actively minimizes predation risk continues to ignite controversy. Methodological reasons that have hindered consensus include inconsistent measurements of predation risk, biased spatiotemporal scales at which responses are measured and lack of robust null expectations.

2. We addressed all three challenges in a comprehensive analysis of the spatiotemporal responses of adult female elk (Cervus elaphus) to the risk of predation by wolves (Canis lupus) during winter in northern Yellowstone, USA.

3. We quantified spatial overlap between the winter home ranges of GPS-collared elk and three measures of predation risk: …

Reply To: “Global Conservation Of Phylogenetic Diversity Captures More Than Just Functional Diversity”, Florent Mazel, Matthew W. Pennell, Marc W. Cadotte, Sandra Diaz, Giulio Valentino Dalla Riva, Richard Grenyer, Fabien Leprieur, Arne O. Mooers, David Mouillot, Caroline M. Tucker, William D. Pearse

Ecology Center Publications

Academic biologists have long advocated for conserving phylogenetic diversity (PD), often (but not exclusively) on the basis that PD is a useful proxy for “feature diversity”, defined as the variety of forms and functions represented in set of organisms (see below for an extended discussion of this definition). In a recent paper, we assess the extent to which this proxy (which we coined the “phylogenetic gambit”) holds in three empirical datasets (terrestrial mammals, birds, and tropical marine fishes) when using functional traits and functional diversity (FD) to operationalize feature diversity. Owen et al. offer a criticism of our methods for …

The Intrepid Urban Coyote: A Comparison Of Bold And Exploratory Behavior In Coyotes From Urban And Rural Environments, Stewart W. Breck, Sharon A. Poessel, Peter J. Mahoney, Julie K. Young

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Coyotes (Canis latrans) are highly adaptable, medium-sized carnivores that now inhabit nearly every large city in the United States and Canada. To help understand how coyotes have adapted to living in urban environments, we compared two ecologically and evolutionarily important behavioral traits (i.e., bold-shy and exploration-avoidance behavior) in two contrasting environments (i.e., rural and urban). Boldness is an individual’s reaction to a risky situation and exploration is an individual’s willingness to explore novel situations. Our results from both tests indicate that urban coyotes are bolder and more exploratory than rural coyotes and that within both populations there are …

Species Diversity Associated With Foundation Species In Temperate And Tropical Forests, Aaron M. Ellison, Hannah L. Buckley, Bradley S. Case, Dairon Cardenas, Álvaro J. Duque, James A. Lutz, Jonathan A. Myers, David A. Orwig, Jess K. Zimmerman

Ecology Center Publications

Foundation species define and structure ecological communities but are difficult to identify before they are declining. Yet, their defining role in ecosystems suggests they should be a high priority for protection and management while they are still common and abundant. We used comparative analyses of six large forest dynamics plots spanning a temperate-to-tropical gradient in the Western Hemisphere to identify statistical “fingerprints” of potential foundation species based on their size-frequency and abundance-diameter distributions, and their spatial association with five measures of diversity of associated woody plant species. Potential foundation species are outliers from the common “reverse-J” size-frequency distribution, and have …

Climate Change, Woodpeckers, And Forests: Current Trends And Future Modeling Needs, Eric S. Walsh, Kerri T. Vierling, Eva Strand, Kristina Bartowitz, Tara W. Hudiburg

Aspen Bibliography

The structure and composition of forest ecosystems are expected to shift with climate‐induced changes in precipitation, temperature, fire, carbon mitigation strategies, and biological disturbance. These factors are likely to have biodiversity implications. However, climate‐driven forest ecosystem models used to predict changes to forest structure and composition are not coupled to models used to predict changes to biodiversity. We proposed integrating woodpecker response (biodiversity indicator) with forest ecosystem models. Woodpeckers are a good indicator species of forest ecosystem dynamics, because they are ecologically constrained by landscape‐scale forest components, such as composition, structure, disturbance regimes, and management activities. In addition, they are …