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Articles 1 - 6 of 6
Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Relationships Between Watershed Factors And Community Size Spectra Of The Fish And Macroinvertebrate Communities Of Mid-Appalachian Streams, Jarrett Hunter Landreth
Relationships Between Watershed Factors And Community Size Spectra Of The Fish And Macroinvertebrate Communities Of Mid-Appalachian Streams, Jarrett Hunter Landreth
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports
Freshwater lotic communities are complex, dynamic, and quick to respond to changes to their environment. However, some of the specific mechanisms driving those changes are yet to be fully understood. Here, I will use the community size spectrum (CSS) approach to assess how the CSS slope, elevation, and food chain length of the fish and macroinvertebrate assemblages as well as the combined CSS of 15 mid-sized (2nd-4th order) streams in north-central West Virginia respond across gradients of watershed factors (drainage area, mean drainage slope, mean drainage elevation, drainage % forest, and stream specific conductance). Field sampling was carried out in …
Advancing Assessments Of Climate Change Vulnerability Of West Virginia Watersheds, Joseph T. Molina
Advancing Assessments Of Climate Change Vulnerability Of West Virginia Watersheds, Joseph T. Molina
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports
As climate change is becoming increasingly recognized as a threat to aquatic ecosystems, climate adaptation planning, in both the long- and short-term, is becoming more common in natural resource management. There is a need within conservation agencies to develop methodologies and assessments that support adaptation planning to efficiently disperse conservation dollars and effectively strengthen ecological and community resilience as climate changes continue. My thesis aims to provide West Virginia natural resources managers with climate vulnerability assessments that can be used to determine where and how conservation efforts should be administered. Additionally, I demonstrate a methodology that can be built upon …
Assessing Forest Features And Nocturnal Flying Insect Diversity As Predictors Of Eastern Whip-Poor-Will Occupancy In Foraging Habitat, Clark D. Alexander
Assessing Forest Features And Nocturnal Flying Insect Diversity As Predictors Of Eastern Whip-Poor-Will Occupancy In Foraging Habitat, Clark D. Alexander
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports
Eastern whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vociferus), an insectivorous caprimulgid, have seen an approximate 2.76% annual population decrease since the 1960s, with their breeding and foraging ecology largely unknown due to their nocturnal and cryptic behavior. I conducted research to assess abiotic and biotic variables correlated with detection, and occupancy probability, and prey species diversity on ~104,000 hectares of forest in West Virginia, owned by the private timber company Weyerhaeuser. Previous literature indicates that Eastern whip-poor-will, and their prey, require ephemeral habitat such as recently cleared and early successional forests, like those historically created by forest fires, wind shears, hurricanes, and …
Fish Community Responses To Environmental And Anthropogenic Conditions In West Virginia, Katherine A. Adase
Fish Community Responses To Environmental And Anthropogenic Conditions In West Virginia, Katherine A. Adase
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports
While Appalachia is among the oldest region in the world, Central West Virginia watersheds have been impacted by anthropogenic stressors, including extractive mining and timber harvest industries, as well as urban development and agriculture, damns, fracking, mining, and land cover use. This study aims to understand how natural environmental and human altered gradients impact affect diversity of fish communities in streams and rivers throughout Central Appalachia. The first chapter aims to provide insights into the impact of the 2016 low head dam removals on taxonomic and functional fish communities in the West Fork River, West Virginia and the potential benefits …
Abundance-Habitat Relationships And Aquatic-Terrestrial Habitat Selection Patterns For Wood Turtles (Glyptemys Insculpta) In The Upper Midwest, Jena Marie Staggs
Abundance-Habitat Relationships And Aquatic-Terrestrial Habitat Selection Patterns For Wood Turtles (Glyptemys Insculpta) In The Upper Midwest, Jena Marie Staggs
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports
Due to range-wide population declines, wood turtles (Glyptemys insculpta) are under review for federal listing under the United States Endangered Species Act. Understanding how habitat associations and environmental conditions influence population dynamics and spatiotemporal activity patterns is fundamental for designing effective management strategies. Previous work on wood turtle abundance-habitat relationships focused on broad-scale habitat relationships in northeastern North America. However, regional differences in climate, habitat conditions, and land use patterns limit their applicability to much of the wood turtle’s Upper Midwest distribution. Much of our understanding of wood turtle activity patterns is based on radiotelemetry studies, which are biased towards …
The Birds And The Bees And The Willows: Understanding The Reproductive Biology Of Salix Nigra Marsh., Julianne Gmys Grady
The Birds And The Bees And The Willows: Understanding The Reproductive Biology Of Salix Nigra Marsh., Julianne Gmys Grady
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports
Salix nigra is a common tree-form willow found throughout the eastern United States and Canada in riparian and wetland habitats. Like other members of the Salicaceae, it is dioecious with separate male and female individuals. While Salix has been thought to be strictly insect pollinated and Populus wind pollinated, several species of Salix have had wind pollination present in varying amounts by species. S. nigra’s pollination syndrome has not been studied extensively, though it is assumed to be insect pollinated. Unlike other willows with wind pollination, S. nigra is basal on the Salix phylogenetic tree. This study was conducted …