Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Stationary Phase Mutagenesis In Bacillus Subtilisis Independent Of Genome Replication, Mark Upchurch, Holly Martin, Eduardo Robleto

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

Stationary phase mutagenesis is defined as cellular mechanisms that produce genetic diversity in cells experiencing conditions of stress. These processes are associated with many biological phenomena, including those that produce the formation of cancers in animal cells and other degenerative diseases. Also, these mechanisms are associated with the accumulation of beneficial mutations in bacteria, but follow stochastic processes and are controlled by genetic factors. The current models explaining the generation of stress-induced mutations are predicated on the formation of DNA replication intermediates that are formed during the repair of damaged DNA or during DNA replication and transcription encounters. Here we …

Wetland Management Guidelines For Nebraska's Wildlife Management Areas, Ted Lagrange, Randy Stutheit

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission: White Papers, Conference Presentations, and Manuscripts

Prior to Euro-American settlement, wetlands covered about 6% of the Nebraska landscape. Since settlement, the state’s wetlands have suffered serious decline. For example, approximately 90% of Rainwater Basin playa wetlands and 90% of the eastern saline wetlands have been destroyed or are highly degraded. Remaining wetlands are threatened by conversion to other uses (e.g. agriculture), invasive and aggressive vegetation, siltation, and lack of proper management. Only through sound management can the wetlands on our Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) be preserved for the citizens of Nebraska, as well as the native plants and wildlife dependent on them.

This section is directed …

Determining The Composition Of The Dwelling Tubes Of Antarctic Pterobranchs, Lukasz J. Sewera

Honors Projects

Pterobranchs are a group of marine invertebrates within the Hemichordata, which share characteristics with both chordates and echinoderms.  Pterobranchs live in colonies of secreted tubes, coenicia, which are composed of a gelatinous material of unknown composition.  Visually, the tubes appear similar to the tunic of tunicates, a group of invertebrates within the Chordata. The nonproteinaceous tunic of tunicates is composed of cellulose, which is unusual.  The goal of this study was to determine the composition of the pterobranch coenicium. Some aspects of pterobranch phylogeny are still unclear even after multiple molecular and morphological studies.  Identification of any new shared characteristics …

Literary Genesis, Stephanie Wood '11

Honor Scholar Theses

No abstract provided.

Assortative Mating In Fallow Deer Reduces The Strength Of Sexual Selection, Mary E. Farrell, Elodie Briefer, Alan G. Mcelligott

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

Background: Assortative mating can help explain how genetic variation for male quality is maintained even in highly polygynous species. Here, we present a longitudinal study examining how female and male ages, as well as male social dominance, affect assortative mating in fallow deer (Dama dama) over 10 years. Assortative mating could help explain the substantial proportion of females that do not mate with prime-aged, high ranking males, despite very high mating skew. We investigated the temporal pattern of female and male matings, and the relationship between female age and the age and dominance of their mates.

Results: The peak of …

The Genus Butheoloides Hirst, 1925 (Scorpiones, Buthidae) In Morocco, With A Description Of А New Species, Wilson R. Lourenço, Oulaid Touloun, Ali Ali Boumezzough

Euscorpius

A new species belonging to the genus Butheoloides Hirst, 1925 (subgenus Butheoloides Hirst, 1925) (Scorpiones, Buthidae) is described from two localities in Morocco: north of Sidi Ifni in the southern coast and Sidi Moussa west of Tiznit. With the description of Butheoloides (Butheoloides) littoralis sp. n., the total number of species of this genus known from Morocco is raised to five. This makes Morocco the region in Africa with the highest diversity for Butheoloides species.

Episodic Radiations In The Fly Tree Of Life, Brian M. Wiegmann, Michelle D. Trautwein, Isaac S. Winkler, Norman B. Barr, Jung-Wook Kim, Christine Lambkin, Matthew Bertone, Brian Cassel, Keith Bayless, Alysha Heimberg

Dartmouth Scholarship

Flies are one of four superradiations of insects (along with beetles, wasps, and moths) that account for the majority of animal life on Earth. Diptera includes species known for their ubiquity (Musca domestica house fly), their role as pests (Anopheles gambiae malaria mosquito), and their value as model organisms across the biological sciences (Drosophila melanogaster). A resolved phylogeny for flies provides a framework for genomic, developmental, and evolutionary studies by facilitating comparisons across model organisms, yet recent research has suggested that fly relationships have been obscured by multiple episodes of rapid diversification. We provide a phylogenomic …

The Future Of Blue-Winged And Golden-Winged Warblers In Connecticut, Robert A. Askins

Biology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Predators Of Enashiva: A Survey Of Occurrence & Distribution, Adrienne Fisk Bowles

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study was conducted during a period of 16 days (April 10 to April 26, 2011) at the Enashiva Nature Refuge in Northern Tanzania. It was a modified repeat study, using the same methodologies of a mammal survey conducted in November 2009, however this study only focused on occurrence and distribution of predators in the highest trophic level and accounted for reptile and birds, in addition to mammals. Based upon the findings of the November 2009 study, it was hypothesized that the woodland would have the highest predator species richness. This hypothesis was supported by the data; the woodland habitat …

A Current Bibliographic Resource For The Red-Cockaded Woodpecker, Federal Wildlife Service

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Review Of Nature's Ghosts: Confronting Extinction From The Age Of Jefferson To The Age Of Ecology. By Mark V. Barrow, Jr., Peter A. Bednekoff

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The saving of bison occupies a central place in Nature's Ghosts, but Mark Barrow's chronicle extends over a century both before and after. The story starts with Thomas Jefferson and fossils that came to be recognized as mastodons, mammoths, and giant ground sloths. "Jefferson and most of his contemporaries were certain that the natural world was orderly, static, and new." In such a worldview, extinction was unthinkable. Fossil evidence plus the historical extinctions of dodos, moas, and great auks forced reconsideration.

This book ranges across centuries and continents, and only a few parts of it are explicitly about the Great …

Health And Fertility Implications Related To Seasonal Changes In Kidney Fat Index Of White-Tailed Jackrabbits In South Dakota, Dustin Schaible, Charles D. Dieter

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

White-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) populations in the Northern Plains have been in a general decline for the past decade or longer. A suggested reason for this population decline was reduced body condition of individual jackrabbits due to habitat changes. In order to evaluate body condition, we determined the kidney fat index of 314 white-tailed jackrabbits harvested in 44 counties throughout South Dakota. We removed and weighed kidneys and all perirenal fat associated with the kidneys from collected jackrabbits. We measured kidney weight to determine times of high metabolic activity as indicated by an increase in mass. Body condition was …

Mojave Applied Ecology Notes Spring 2011, Scott R. Abella, Ross Guida, S. D. Smith, Christopher L. Roberts, Haroon Stephen, William J. Smith, Zhongwei Liu, James S. Holland, Aurore Giguet

Mojave Applied Ecology Notes

Red brome distribution in the eastern Mojave Desert, A look at the UNLV xeric gardens and Marjorie Barrick museum, Summary of recent science synthesis efforts

Activation Of Amp-Activated Protein Kinase As An Early Indicator For Stress In The Lobster, Homarus Americanus, Stephanie Podolski

All Theses And Dissertations

Variations in water temperature, salinity, pH, and oxygen concentration are stressors that marine invertebrates face on a daily basis. Each of these physiological stressors creates a large cellular demand for energy. In mammals, energy metabolism is regulated by the enzyme AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), which is highly conserved during evolution. This project was designed to test the hypothesis that AMPK is present and activated by temperature, hypoxia, and anoxia stress in the lobster, Homarus americanus.

Animals were exposed to a rapid and progressive increase in temperature (6ºC per hour) beginning at 14 ºC. We measured lactate concentrations and AMPK …

Governance Of The Western Rock Lobster Fishery And Marine Stewardship Council Principle 3 Effective Management, Department Of Fisheries

Fisheries Occasional Publications

No abstract provided.

Draft Genome Of The Red Harvester Ant Pogonomyrmex Barbatus, Chris R. Smith, Christopher D. Smith, Hugh M. Robertson, Martin Helmkampf, Aleksey Zimin, Mark Yandall, Carson Holt, Hao Hu, Ehab Abouheif, Richard Benton, Elizabeth Cash, Vincent Croset, Cameron R. Currie, Eran Elhaik, Christine G. Elsik, Marie-Julie Favé, Vilaiwan Fernandes, Joshua D. Gibson, Dan Graur, Wulfila Gronenberg, Kirk J. Grubbs, Darren E. Hagen, Ana Sofia Ibarraran Viniegra, Brian R. Johnson, Reed M. Johnson, Abderrahman Khila, Jay W. Kim, Kaitlyn A, Mathis, Monica C. Munoz-Torres, Marguerite C. Murphy, Julie A. Mustard, Rin Nakamura, Oliver Niehuis, Surabhi Nigam, Rick P. Overson, Jennifer E. Placek, Rajendhran Rajakumar, Justin T. Reese, Garret Suen, Shu Tao, Candice W. Torres, Neil D. Tsutsui, Lumi Viljakainen, Florian Wolschin, Jürgen Gadau

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

We report the draft genome sequence of the red harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex barbatus. The genome was sequenced using 454 pyrosequencing, and the current assembly and annotation were completed in less than 1 y. Analyses of conserved gene groups (more than 1,200 manually annotated genes to date) suggest a high-quality assembly and annotation comparable to recently sequenced insect genomes using Sanger sequencing. The red harvester ant is a model for studying reproductive division of labor, phenotypic plasticity, and sociogenomics. Although the genome of P. barbatus is similar to other sequenced hymenopterans (Apis mellifera and Nasonia vitripennis) in …

Examining Trends In Taste Preferences, Market Demand, And Annual Catch In An Indigenous Marine Turtle Fishery In Southwest Madagascar, Kristin Jones

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The worldwide exploitation of marine turtles has been common throughout human history, turtle products including carapaces for decoration and use, skin for leather, and eggs and meat for consumption. The hunting of marine turtles has long established economic importance among Madagascar's coastal inhabitants and is an activity traditionally associated with integral cultural and spiritual values. Due to overexploitation and a combination of relatively newer threats such as pollution, habitat loss, and incidental fisheries take, however, all marine turtle species in the Indian Ocean are considered to be endangered or critically endangered. Although Madagascar's marine turtles have been legally protected from …

Preference Of White-Tailed Deer For Corn Hybrids And Agricultural Husbandry Practices During The Growing Season, Joshua A. Delger, Kevin L. Monteith, Lowell E. Schmitz, Jonathan A. Jenks

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Damage to field corn (Zea mays) by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) can be substantial, resulting in millions of dollars lost annually. Numerous methods exist to minimize deer depredation, but all have met with varying degrees of success. Currently, little information is available on preference of white-tailed deer for corn hybrids during the growing season and how that preference might affect depredation patterns. We used adult female white-tailed deer in captivity to study the effect of herbicide treatments on deer-use (treatment versus no treatment) of corn in 2005 and to document preference among specific corn hybrids in …

A Comparison Of Adrenal In Toad-Eating And Nontoad-Eating Snakes, Shabnam Mohammadi

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Toads are chemically defended by bufadienolides, a class of cardiotonic steroids lethal to most predators, including many snakes. Bufadienolides bind to Na+K +-ATPase, inhibiting their ability to transport ions. In cardiocytes, this inhibition cause arrhythmia and severely increased contraction strength, which, if prolonged, lead to death. However, several snakes are resistant to bufadienolides and consume toads with no ill effects. Adrenal glands produce hormones that are important for the maintenance of Na+K +ATPase, and may therefore play an important role in countering the negative effects of bufadienolides. Indeed, the toad-eating specialist Heterodon platirhinos has been known to possess enlarged, and …

Historic And Contemporary Trends Of The Conservation Reserve Program And Ring-Necked Pheasants In South Dakota, Christopher R. Laingen

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Over the past century, the interactions between agricultural land use and government cropland retirement programs have affected pheasant population change. Two government land retirement programs that returned croplands to grasslands, Soil Bank in the 1960s and the current Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), help to illustrate these connections. From 2007 to 2010, South Dakota lost 41% of its CRP lands and experienced an 18% decline in pheasants per mile. However, because of where CRP expirations have occurred and where pheasant populations are found, some regional variability is seen. Western South Dakota (Region 1) had an 80% increase in pheasants per mile …

Review Of The Ecology And Management Of Prairies In The Central United States. By Chris Helzer., David J. Gibson

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This relatively short book is an informative and easyto- read account of the author's philosophy and advice on how to manage prairies in the Central U.S., an area corresponding to the eastern portion of the Great Plains where tall- and mixed-grass prairie occurred. With fragmentation and huge losses of this region's natural prairie habitat, there is a growing appreciation for active management of remnants and prairie restoration. This book provides an excellent introduction to this topic.

Multilocus And Parametric Analyses Of The Evolutionary History Of The Amazonian Peacock Cichlids, The Genus Cichla (Teleostei: Cichlidae), Stuart Clayton Willis

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Accurate knowledge of species boundaries and species phylogeny are fundamental to testing hypotheses of recent evolutionary processes, but the estimation of these partitions is challenging due both to inherent confusion about what is being estimated as well as the data available to estimate them. Using multilocus data from mtDNA, microsatellites, and nuclear locus sequences of over 1100 individuals, we delimited eight separately evolving species of Cichla rather than the 15 described. Among species we found evidence of rare but widespread introgressive hybridization, while within these species we observed evidence of long-term gene exchange and constrained evolutionary trajectories. In most cases …

Spatially-Explicit Agent-Based Modeling Of Ecosystem Change And Epizootiological Impacts On Caribbean Spiny Lobster, Panulirus Argus, Thomas William Dolan Iii

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Agent-based models explicitly incorporate interactions and variation at the individual level, just as in the real world. As a result, agent-based models are realistic, intuitive, and generally less complex mathematically than their analytical counterparts. Their primary disadvantage is the large amount of detailed data required to construct and parameterize them. Although the use of agent-based simulation is increasing in ecology, they are highly specific, so are rarely used for development of theory. To demonstrate the flexibility and utility of this approach I developed a multi-species, agent-based, spatially-explicit model of the spiny lobster nursery of southern Florida that incorporates changing salinities, …

Drafting Human Ancestry: What Does The Neanderthal Genome Tell Us About Hominid Evolution? Commentary On Green Et Al. (2010), Michael Hofreiter

Human Biology

Ten years after the first draft versions of the human genome were
announced, technical progress in both DNA sequencing and ancient DNA
analyses has allowed a research team around Ed Green and Svante Pa¨a¨bo to
complete this task from infinitely more difficult hominid samples: a few
pieces of bone originating from our closest, albeit extinct, relatives, the
Neanderthals. Pulling the Neanderthal sequences out of a sea of contaminating
environmental DNA impregnating the bones and at the same time
avoiding the problems of contamination with modern human DNA is in itself
a remarkable accomplishment. However, the crucial question in the long …

Lake Mead National Recreation Area Monitoring And Evaluation Of Sensitive Wildlife: Final Project Report, Margaret N. Rees, Jef R. Jaeger Ph.D.

Wildlife Monitoring

This task agreement was originally awarded by the National Park Service (NPS), Lake Mead National Recreation Area (LMNRA) to the Public Lands Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on September 30, 2006, and was amended to run through March 31, 2011. This agreement covered several project elements focused on:

• Monitoring and conservation actions for the relict leopard frog
• Coordinating and conducting annual bald eagle counts on Lakes Mead and Mohave
• Development and assessment of a habitat map for wintering bald eagles based on observations data collected during winter counts

• Monitoring of breeding peregrine falcons and assessment of reproductive …

Limnological Assistance For Lake Mead National Recreation Area: Quarterly Report, Period Ending March 30, 2011, Margaret N. Rees

Limnological Studies

Project 1

• Technical assistance with the implementation of the Interagency Monitoring Action Plan (I-MAP) for Quagga Mussels is ongoing. During this quarter, analysis was completed for 13 juvenile/adult samples and analyses of the remaining samples are underway.
• Both research projects are well underway with 14 sample sets collected for Veliger abundance and settlement at different depths of Lake Mead and 12 samples collected for Growth of adult quagga mussels within Las Vegas Wash/Las Vegas Bay.

Project 2

• Annual summary sheets are under development for the topics listed within the Limnological and Aquatic Resource Monitoring and Research Plan for Lakes Mead …

Using Motion Sensor Cameras To Examine Wildlife Use Of Water Bodies In The Northern Chihuahuan Desert, Julia S. Alva^, Vicente Mata-Silva, Jerry Johnson, Vanessa Lougheed*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2011

Indio Mountains Research Station (IMRS), in the northern Chihuahuan Desert, contains only one natural, permanent spring but many man-made ephemerally-full tanks, both of which are presumably important for the survival of many species residing in that area.  The goal of this study was to examine the utility of utilizing motion sensor cameras to monitor wildlife use of these water bodies, and to determine species-specific preferences for individual water bodies and temporal activity patterns. We installed motion sensor cameras at five different water bodies throughout IMRS. Preliminary results indicate that the dominant mammal visiting these water bodies is peccary (Pecari …

Effects Of Water Quality On Genetic Variation On The Brackish-Water Rotifer Brachionus Plicatilis, Kayla I. Hinson^, Elizabeth J. Walsh*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2011

Impacts of water quality on the genetic structure of aquatic organisms have not been well characterized. Unfavorable conditions may result in loss of species diversity and/ or select for tolerant genotypes. We investigated whether aquatic pollutants affect the genetic diversity of the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis, common in saline systems. We predict that the genetic diversity of B. plicatilis will decrease with lower water quality. An urban population (Ascarate Lake, El Paso Co., TX) was compared with a non-impacted population (Figure 8 Lake, Bottomless Lakes, NM). Basic water chemistry parameters were measured along with heavy metals concentrations. Genetic variation is …

Preliminary Ecological Assessment Of Stream Quality In The Sacramento Mountains, New Mexico., Ector M. Martell^, Bianca C. Luong^, Vanessa Lougheed*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2011

Pollution in freshwater ecosystems has reduced the ability of freshwater habitats to host a variety of organisms. Algal biomass and macroinvertebrate assemblages can reflect stream quality, due to their rapid response to nutrients and limited dispersal ability, respectively. In this study, we used algae and macroinvertebrates as bio-indicators of river quality in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico, which is largely forested with some low-level development and cattle grazing. All of our sites (n = 3) had a macroinvertebrate Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera (EPT) index of 50% or greater, which suggest high quality conditions in the river. More specifically, all sites …

Evolutionary Genetics Of African Toads (Anura: Bufonidae: Amietophrynus), Nancy P. Conkey^, Eli Greenbaum*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2011

African "true" toads (frog genus Amietophrynus) include 39 morphologically conserved species that live in a panoply of habitats from the fringes of the Sahara to the mountains of South Africa. We examined the evolutionary relationships of these African bufonids by sequencing a 550 bp fragment of the 16S mitochondrial gene, and based on these results, collected a further 4 kb of combined mitochondrial (12S–16S) and nuclear (CXCR4, POMC, and RAG1) sequence data from sixty-two divergent samples of the genus Amietophrynus, and several bufonid outgroups. DNA sequences were analyzed with maximum parsimony,maximum-likelihood and Bayesian inference with the programs PAUP, RAxML and …