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2025

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Articles 751 - 761 of 761

Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Endocrine Responses To Two Distinct Foraging Contexts In The Bonobo (Pan Paniscus), Lauren Mitchell Jan 2025

Endocrine Responses To Two Distinct Foraging Contexts In The Bonobo (Pan Paniscus), Lauren Mitchell

Master's Theses

In gregarious animals, a social structure characterized by female dominance is relatively rare. However, bonobos (Pan paniscus), one of the two species most closely related to humans, are characterized by partial female dominance, with females forming close social bonds. In contrast, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), a close relative of the bonobo, are characterized by strong male-male bonding and social dominance with female chimpanzees lacking close social bonds. There is a lack of consensus concerning the reasons for these behavioral differences in Pan, specifically, the physiological processes responsible for female dominance in bonobos. The role of hormones …

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Tricolored Bat (Perimyotis Subflavus) Population Genetic Structure In The Southeastern United States, Laura Henderson Jan 2025

Tricolored Bat (Perimyotis Subflavus) Population Genetic Structure In The Southeastern United States, Laura Henderson

Master's Theses

Tricolored bats (Perimyotis subflavus) have experienced substantial population losses from white-nose syndrome (WNS), a disease caused by the pathogenic fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd) which infects hibernating bats. Determining population genetic structure helps assess genetic diversity and the impacts of wildlife threats to populations. Pre-WNS data shows weak-to-negligible structure and panmictic P. subflavus populations at core portions of their range. However, current genetic data from their southeastern U.S. range is lacking. I sought to determine whether recent genetic data help resolve genetic structure among southeastern populations and assess genetic differences at two stages of impact: post-WNS and …

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Mountain Pine Beetle Host Tree Selection And Climate-Growth Dynamics In Whitebark Pine, Hannah Rose Alverson Jan 2025

Mountain Pine Beetle Host Tree Selection And Climate-Growth Dynamics In Whitebark Pine, Hannah Rose Alverson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Recent climate-driven outbreaks of mountain pine beetles (Dendroctonus ponderosae) in whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) have raised fears of increasing whitebark pine mortality with increased warming and drought due to climate change. However, little is known about how whitebark pine responds to climate, what characteristics may predict whitebark pine susceptibility to mountain pine beetle outbreaks, or how these may interact. This information is critical in understanding how whitebark pine might persist in a changing climate. My research investigated how whitebark pine growth responds to various climate variables and how these responses may be predictive of attack by …

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Binoculars To Bytes: Development And Field Validation Of An Ai-Driven System For Avian Monitoring, Christian J. Dupree Jan 2025

Binoculars To Bytes: Development And Field Validation Of An Ai-Driven System For Avian Monitoring, Christian J. Dupree

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Autonomous camera-trap arrays coupled with artificial-intelligence (AI) vision can lift bird monitoring beyond the spatial, temporal, and labor limits of traditional field surveys. We present Binoculars to Bytes (B2B), an open-source pipeline that turns 180–360° time-lapse imagery into analysis-ready avian data. At Freezout Lake Wildlife Management Area (Montana, USA) the system ran four-hour morning deployments during spring and fall migrations (2023–2024). A YOLO-NAS detector, incrementally refined with a “Specialized Localized Iterative Model” workflow, quadrupled local accuracy and, after confidence-based species-binning, cut false-positive rates in half. Daily AI species lists were benchmarked against contemporaneous eBird citizen-science checklists and recovered ≥ …

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Aspen Stands Enrich Bird Communities Following A Wildfire In A Montane, Mixed Conifer Forest, Cody Q. Lane Jan 2025

Aspen Stands Enrich Bird Communities Following A Wildfire In A Montane, Mixed Conifer Forest, Cody Q. Lane

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Fire is a major ecological force in most terrestrial systems, but the responses of animal communities to fire vary markedly across ecosystems due to variability in fire regimes and vegetation communities. Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) is unique within coniferous forests of western North America for its ability to regenerate following wildfire via vegetative resprouting. As managers employ techniques to restore fire regimes and conserve declining aspen forests, it becomes important to understand how aspen alters postfire communities. Our objectives were to (1) assess how aspen interacted with fire severity and years since fire to influence avian species and …

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Spatial And Temporal Patterns Of Nutrient Limitation In A Western Montana River, Matthew T. Nichols Jan 2025

Spatial And Temporal Patterns Of Nutrient Limitation In A Western Montana River, Matthew T. Nichols

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Enhanced loading of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) is pervasive in rivers around the world. As a consequence of nutrient-rich conditions, many well-lit rivers experience severe algal blooms, which threaten water quality and aquatic habitats. Nutrient enrichment in the upper Clark Fork River, located in western Montana, has increased the productivity of benthic algae, Cladophora glomerata, which routinely forms extensive blooms during summer growing seasons (July – September). Addressing eutrophication in rivers begins with identifying the nutrients that contribute toward algal productivity. I deployed nutrient diffusing substrates (NDS), collected bi-weekly surface water samples, and conducted algal surveys at four …

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Small Mammal Population Dynamics And Torpor Use In A Changing Subnivean Environment, Derik Butts Jan 2025

Small Mammal Population Dynamics And Torpor Use In A Changing Subnivean Environment, Derik Butts

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Despite global temperature increases, winter soil surface temperatures in some northern regions might actually be getting colder due to diminishing snowpacks exposing the soil surface to ambient winter conditions. Small mammal species in northern temperate areas often utilize a microclimate beneath the snow, known as the subnivium, to escape harsh winter conditions. Exposure to winter conditions without the subnivium as a buffer could cause small mammals to experience physiological stress and population declines. In this thesis, I explore the impacts of a declining subnivium from two complementary perspectives. In chapter 1, we used a structural equation model (SEM) to test …

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Whole Genome Sequencing From Snowshoe Hare Fecal Samples, Jessica J. Powell Jan 2025

Whole Genome Sequencing From Snowshoe Hare Fecal Samples, Jessica J. Powell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Genomic analyses can provide powerful insights into important issues in conservation biology, including rapid estimates of overall genetic diversity and related population genetic parameters. Noninvasive DNA sampling from fecal samples is an affordable, efficient, and broadly applicable sampling method that has been used in many targeted genetic analyses. However, the efficacy of whole genome sequencing from fecal samples remains relatively unexplored in most taxa. Here, we present results from two experiments designed to test the quantity and quality of whole genome resequencing data obtained from snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) fecal pellets. Extensive previous research has used genetic analyses …

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Urban Heat Island Effects On Arthropod Populations And Communities In Jacksonville, Fl, Eleanor G. Cronin Jan 2025

Urban Heat Island Effects On Arthropod Populations And Communities In Jacksonville, Fl, Eleanor G. Cronin

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The urban heat island (UHI) effect makes urban areas hotter than rural areas. Urban areas, and the extreme heat that comes with them, are becoming more common worldwide. If UHIs lead to changes in arthropod community diversity, then ecosystem structure and services could be disrupted. Previous UHI studies have investigated heat impacts on arthropod ecology, but many focus on one species while studies that consider thermal diversity within a single urban area have been limited. In Jacksonville, Florida, areas that are 12°C hotter than the coolest areas are considered local UHIs. The goal of this research is to investigate how …

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Severe Aggression Among Zoo-Housed Coconut (Trichoglossus Haematodus) And Rainbow (Trichoglossus Moluccanus) Lorikeets: Wellbeing Considerations For Free-Flight Aviaries, Emily Simkins Jan 2025

Severe Aggression Among Zoo-Housed Coconut (Trichoglossus Haematodus) And Rainbow (Trichoglossus Moluccanus) Lorikeets: Wellbeing Considerations For Free-Flight Aviaries, Emily Simkins

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As conservation and education institutions, modern zoos balance the needs of animals with the interests of visitors through several strategies which can increase animal wellbeing and improve visitor experience. Environmental enrichment is frequently employed to increase the suitability of anthropogenic environments for zoo-housed animals, such as through walkthrough habitats and free-flight aviaries. While habitats such as these are important for visitor experience and can be enriching to animals, there are also wellbeing considerations for these spaces. Walkthrough habitats can be a potential source of fear and stress for animals, as shown by increased frequencies of vigilance, undesirable behavior, and aggression. …

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Long-Term Abundance Estimates Of A Northeast Florida Estuarine Dolphin Community: Evaluating The Impacts Of The 2013–2015 Cetacean Morbillivirus Unusual Mortality Event, Allison L. Wilkins Jan 2025

Long-Term Abundance Estimates Of A Northeast Florida Estuarine Dolphin Community: Evaluating The Impacts Of The 2013–2015 Cetacean Morbillivirus Unusual Mortality Event, Allison L. Wilkins

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tamanend's bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops erebennus) in the St. Johns River (SJR), Jacksonville, FL, are subjected to substantial anthropogenic stressors (e.g., vessel traffic, dredging, fisheries interactions) and were heavily impacted by the 2013-2015 Mid-Atlantic cetacean morbillivirus unusual mortality event (UME). High prevalence of skin lesions and frequent sightings of emaciated dolphins suggest declining health and viability of the SJR dolphin community. Sighting data from Jul. 2011 to Oct. 2019 provided the rare opportunity to investigate long-term changes in dolphin abundance surrounding the UME. This study produced the first dolphin abundance estimate within the Jacksonville Estuarine System stock since 1997, …

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