Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Phylogenetically Novel Species Are More Successful Due To High Competitive Ability At Local And Regional Scales, Amy C. Patterson

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

While few introduced exotic species become invasive, this small number of species poses serious threats to biodiversity, ecosystem function, and recreation, leading ecologists to study why certain species become invasive and why certain communities are prone to invasions. Several leading hypotheses seek to explain invasiveness, including the Enemy Release Hypothesis, the trait superiority hypothesis, and the Biotic Resistance Hypothesis, but none are consistently supported in the literature. We suggest that the lack of uniting hypothesis is a result of the inability to put multiple proposed mechanisms in the same framework, and suggest for a uniting framework Darwin’s Naturalization Hypothesis along …

Phylogenetically Novel Species Are More Successful Due To High Competitive Ability At Local And Regional Scales, Amy C. Patterson

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Invasive species are widely considered to be a major threat to native biodiversity, however some studies suggest that exotic species seldom cause the extinction of native species, and may even increase biodiversity at some spatial scales. This leads to the question of whether exotic plant species that have naturalized to a new range are biologically distinct from their native counterparts. Here, we chose one common native and one common exotic plant species from each of five plant families, and evaluated their growth over one growing season for two proposed mechanisms of biological invasion. We evaluated the Enemy Release Hypothesis (ERH), …

Soil Bacterial Structure And Function Associated With The Invasive Grass Microsteguim Vimineum And Two Native Grasses, Jennifer Kay Bell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Soil microorganisms play vital roles in biogeochemical cycles and are necessary for maintaining soil health. An invasive plant that alters the structure and function of the soil microbial assemblage could gain an advantage over native plants, enhancing its ability to invade new habitats, alter ecosystem function, and hinder efforts to reestablish native populations. Assays of enzyme activity and next generation sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes were used to assess the soil microbial function and community structure associated with the invasive grass, Microstegium vimineum and two co-occurring native grasses (Dichanthelium boscii and Chasmanthium laxum). Significantly lower enzyme activity was found …

European Frogbit (Hydrocharis Morsus-Ranae) In The Champlain/Adirondack Region: Recent Inferences, Chris Martine, Stephen Langdon, Timothy Shearman, Casey Binggeli, Timothy B. Mihuc

Faculty Journal Articles

As part of its north-south movement following introduction to Canada, Hydrocharis morsus-ranae L. (Hydrocharitaceae) has recently become established in slow-moving waters of the Champlain/Adirondack region of the northeastern US. The species is present on both the New York and Vermont shores of Lake Champlain and, so far, at a single location in the interior of the Adirondack Park. The southernmost Champlain/Adirondack occurrence is in the Champlain Canal south of Whitehall, NY (L. Eichler, Darrin Freshwater Institute, pers. comm.), within 25 miles of the Hudson River watershed—a population first recorded around 2006. Entry into the Hudson watershed, whether from the canal …

Ecology Of Feral Cats Felis Catus And Their Prey In Relation To Shrubland Fire Regimes, Tim S. Doherty

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Invasive predators are major drivers of global biodiversity loss and their impacts may be worsened by other disturbances such as fire. I examined how the fire history of shrublands influences the ecology of feral cats Felis catus, dingoes Canis dingo and their prey species in Western Australia’s northern Wheatbelt region.

A review of the literature revealed that feral cats inhabit a diverse range of ecosystems worldwide, but are generally recorded most often in habitat types characterised by a mixture of plant growth forms close to ground level. Cat habitat use is influenced by predation/competition, prey availability, shelter availability and …

A Review Of The Removal Of Arundo Donax From A Riparian Area Within San Timoteo Canyon, Catherine E. Howe

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

A site within San Timoteo Canyon was revisited, 13-14 years after treatment, to look at long-term effects of Arundo donax removal. The data obtained were used to determine whether A. donax had re-invaded, other non-native species had established the area, or if native species were able to grow in place of the removed A. donax. The previous removals included a combination of grinding large patches of A. donax and then foliar spraying, foliar spraying of uncut plants, and direct spraying of hand cut stems, depending upon the location and size of the plant. The effects of the A. donax …

Ecological Biogeography Of The Terrestrial Nematodes Of Victoria Land, Antarctica, Byron Adams, Diana Wall, Ross Virginia, Emma Broos, Matthew A. Knox

Dartmouth Scholarship

The terrestrial ecosystems of Victoria Land, Antarctica are characteristically simple in terms of biological diversity and ecological functioning. Nematodes are the most commonly encountered and abundant metazoans of Victoria Land soils, yet little is known of their diversity and distribution. Herein we present a summary of the geographic distribution, habitats and ecology of the terrestrial nematodes of Victoria Land from published and unpublished sources. All Victoria Land nematodes are endemic to Antarctica, and many are common and widely distributed at landscape scales. However, at smaller spatial scales, populations can have patchy distributions, with the presence or absence of each species …

Harvest Incentives: A Tool For Managing Aquatic Invasive Species, Bob Wiltshire, Nathan Stone, Marshall Meyers, Bill Hyatt, Lori Williams, Jason Goldberg, Susan Pasko, Leah Elwell

National Invasive Species Council

Conclusion

The success of any harvest incentive program to address aquatic invasive species will depend upon numerous biological, socioeconomic, and legal considerations. Programs that encourage harvest may be a successful management tool in targeting small, distinct populations; in high priority areas within a larger invasion; or they may play a supplementary role within larger control programs. Their use, however, will require careful review, planning, and monitoring to ensure success and that they do not unintentionally lead to further spread of invasive species, cause additional harm to native species, or waste valuable resources.

Utilization Of The Invasive Alga Gracilaria Vermiculophylla (Ohmi) Papenfuss By The Native Mud Snail Ilyanassa Obsoleta (Say), Michele Guidone, Christine Newton, Carol S. Thornber

Biology Faculty Publications

The recent invasions of the red alga, Gracilaria vermiculophylla, to the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Oceans have the potential to significantly alter intertidal and subtidal soft sediment communities. In particular, G. vermiculophylla increases habitat complexity and provides a novel hard substrate in an otherwise two dimensional habitat. Following our observations that the native omnivorous mud snail Ilyanassa obsoleta utilizes G. vermiculophylla for egg capsule deposition, our field surveys demonstrated that the in situ abundance of egg capsules on G. vermiculophylla matched abundances on a native alga Ceramium virgatumandwere at least 11–50 times greater than on all other co-occurring macrophytes. Additionally, …

A New Perspective On Trait Differences Between Native And Invasive Exotic Plants, A. Joshua Leffler, Jeremy J. James, Thomas A. Monaco, Roger L. Sheley

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Functional differences between native and exotic species potentially constitute one factor responsible for plant invasion. Differences in trait values between native and exotic invasive species, however, should not be considered fixed and may depend on the context of the comparison. Furthermore, the magnitude of difference between native and exotic species necessary to trigger invasion is unknown. We propose a criterion that differences in trait values between a native and exotic invasive species must be greater than differences between co-occurring natives for this difference to be ecologically meaningful and a contributing factor to plant invasion. We used a meta-analysis to quantify …

Approaches To Improving Detection Of Invasive Fish Species In Western Lake Erie Through Analysis Of Monitoring Efficiencies And Metrics Of Community Distribution, Joshua Alan Southern

Wayne State University Theses

Efficient monitoring programs are essential for the early detection of invasive species. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) monitoring program encompassing 21 years of fish survey data from western Lake Erie was evaluated using Chao biodiversity analysis to determine the efficiency and precision of collection strategies of trawl and gillnet sampling, at detecting rare or non-native species. Overall, ODNR sampling annually accounted for ~80% of extant fish species, leaving gaps in coverage where rare and invasive species may be overlooked and proliferate.Obtaining 90% efficiency would require an estimated doubling of previous sampling effort. Computer simulations calculating different proportions of …

History Of Freshwater Invasions In Illinois: Learning From The Past To Inform The Future, Abigail Jacobs

Master's Theses

Rates of introduction and spread of non-native species continue to increase worldwide, with freshwater ecosystems highly impacted. Many non-native species crossed between the Great Lakes and Mississippi watersheds by traveling through waterways in Illinois. I assembled a comprehensive database of occurrences of aquatic non-native species (n=99) in Illinois inland waters. The arrival of non-native species accelerated since 1873. The Great Lakes Basin was the main source of established species into Illinois. From 1990-2012 the dominant vector was unintentional release of established species non-native to North America. Sixty of the 99 introduced species established. Eighteen established species had high or very …

Prescribed Fire And Oak Sapling Physiology, Demography And Folivore Damage In An Ozark Woodland, D. Alexander Wait, Doug P. Aubrey

Biology: Faculty Publications

Proceedings from the 2014 Central Hardwood Forest Conference in Carbondale, IL. The published proceedings include 27 papers and 47 abstracts pertaining to research conducted on biofuels and bioenergy, forest biometrics, forest ecology and physiology, forest economics, forest health including invasive species, forest soils and hydrology, geographic information systems, harvesting and utilization, silviculture, and wildlife management.

Use Of Seeded Exotic Grasslands By Wintering Birds, Andrew D. George, Timothy J. O'Connell, Karen R. Hickman, David M. Lesliee Jr.

The Prairie Naturalist

Despite widespread population declines of North American grassland birds, effects of anthropogenic disturbance on wintering habitat of this guild remain poorly understood. We compared avian abundance and habitat structure in fields planted to the exotic grass Old World bluestem (Bothriochloa ischaemum; OWB) to that in native mixed-grass prairie. During winters of 2007–2008 and 2008–2009, we conducted bird and vegetation surveys in six native grass and six OWB fields in Garfield, Grant, and Alfalfa counties, Oklahoma. We recorded 24 species of wintering birds in native fields and 14 species in OWB monocultures. While vegetation structure was similar between field …

A Seasonal, Density-Dependent Model For The Management Of An Invasive Weed, Esther Shyu, Eleanor A. Pardini, Tiffany M. Knight, Hal Caswell

Biology Faculty Research

The population effects of harvest depend on complex interactions between density dependence, seasonality, stage structure, and management timing. Here we present a periodic nonlinear matrix population model that incorporates seasonal density dependence with stage-selective and seasonally selective harvest. To this model, we apply newly developed perturbation analyses to determine how population densities respond to changes in harvest and demographic parameters. We use the model to examine the effects of popular control strategies and demographic perturbations on the invasive weed garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata). We find that seasonality is a major factor in harvest outcomes, because population dynamics may …

The Effects Of Invasive Plants On Biodiversity Across Spatial Scales, Kristin Irene Powell

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Although introduced plant species are often considered to be one of the most notable anthropogenic threats to biodiversity, their influence on biodiversity remains controversial. Some studies have shown large declines in biodiversity in plant-invaded areas, whereas others have noted that plant invasions are rarely implicated as the cause of species extinctions. This dissertation aims to synthesize this seemingly conflicting literature on the effects of invasive plants on biodiversity. The overarching hypothesis in this research is that the effect of invasive plant species on biodiversity is scale-dependent, and the discrepancy among studies can be explained by a difference in the scales …

Nature Notes: Environews # 6, Richard Philp

Data and Test Instruments

This paper reviews rewcent informaion regarding invasive species and vindicates the lowly beaver

Partners In Spread Prevention, Nancy C. Balcom

Wrack Lines

Working together to stop the spread of aquatic invasive species.

Improving Model Performance For Invasive Plant Species Distribution Using Global-Scale Presence-Only Data: Parameterization And Data Quality, Feng Yu

Open Access Theses

Invasive species have significant ecological and economic impacts. To control species' invasion, risk assessment provides the most essential information for identification and evaluation of the potential risk of the invasive species, especially in their early invasion stages. Species distribution models (SDMs) is the foundation for risk assessment, in terms of both the practical and theoretical interest in our understanding of species invasion process. SDMs contribute to the proactive invasion management and the test of ecological or biogeographical hypotheses about species distributions in relation to their environment.

However, modeling of invasive species at large spatial scale (i.e., cross-continental) is rarely discussed. …

Physiological And Behavioral Mechanisms Of Range Expansion In The House Sparrow (Passer Domesticus), Andrea Lyn Liebl

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Introduced species cause both considerable ecological and economic damage every year. However, not much is known about how certain species are able to establish and spread beyond the site of initial introduction, whereas others do not. Species undergoing range expansion following an introduction may prove to be a valuable resource to invasion biology, but may also be informative in light of species' responses to changing environments (i.e. global climate change). Here, I took advantage of an ongoing range expansion of an introduced vertebrate species. House sparrows (Passer domesticus) were introduced to Mombasa, Kenya in the 1950s and have subsequently expanded …

Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Response To Invasion And Subsequent Removal Of Typha × Glauca From Great Lakes Coastal Marshes, Kimberly Anne Greene

Master's Theses

Aquatic macroinvertebrates are important in wetland ecosystems; many fish and wildlife species depend upon them for food resources and they aid in nutrient cycling. Wetland macroinvertebrate communities are influenced by plant community composition; as such, this study examined two implications of invasive hybrid cattail, Typha × glauca (Typha), on aquatic macroinvertebrate communities in northern Great Lakes coastal wetlands: 1) how the presence of nearly monotypic stands of Typha alters wetland aquatic macroinvertebrate communities and 2) how manual removal of Typha, via mowing and manual tilling, impacts these invertebrate communities along with wetland plant communities. I found that …

Barrow Island Ute Guide - Non-Indigenous Invertebrates, Frogs, Reptiles & Weeds, Mike Grimm, Kristofer Collett, Jessica Harrison, Peter Davis, Marc Widmer, Andras Szito, Rob Emery, Peter Mangano, John Botha, David Robinson, Brad Maryan

Biosecurity published reports

Barrow Island, the second largest island in Western Australia, is a Class A Nature Reserve and home to a variety of rare and endangered fauna and flora, some of which occur nowhere else. To protect fauna and flora it is essential workers and visitors to the island are aware of the risks that a non-indigenous species (NIS) poses to the ecological balance of Barrow Island.

Workers and visitors to Barrow Island need to be aware and keep their eyes open for any unusual fauna and flora that might be in accommodation units, recreation areas or the work place. Reports from …

Differential Allocation To Photosynthetic And Non-Photosynthetic Nitrogen Fractions Among Native And Invasive Species, Jennifer L. Funk, Lori A. Glenwinkle, Lawren Sack

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Invasive species are expected to cluster on the “high-return” end of the leaf economic spectrum, displaying leaf traits consistent with higher carbon assimilation relative to native species. Intra-leaf nitrogen (N) allocation should support these physiological differences; however, N biochemistry has not been examined in more than a few invasive species. We measured 34 leaf traits including seven leaf N pools for five native and five invasive species from Hawaii under low irradiance to mimic the forest understory environment. We found several trait differences between native and invasive species. In particular, invasive species showed preferential N allocation to metabolism (amino acids) …

Discovering The Light Bulb Tunicate, James F. Reinhardt Phd, Margaret (Peg) A. Van_Patten (Editor) Ms.

Wrack Lines

An article by a former UCONN marine sciences graduate student about a new invasive tunicate in Long Island Sound, the light bulb tunicate.

Survival, Growth And Reproduction Of Non-Native Nile Tilapia Ii: Fundamental Niche Projections And Invasion Potential In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Michael R. Lowe, Wei Wu, Mark S. Peterson, Nancy J. Brown-Peterson, William T. Slack, Pamela J. Schofield

Faculty Publications

Understanding the fundamental niche of invasive species facilitates our ability to predict both dispersal patterns and invasion success and therefore provides the basis for better-informed conservation and management policies. Here we focus on Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus Linnaeus, 1758), one of the most widely cultured fish worldwide and a species that has escaped local aquaculture facilities to become established in a coastal-draining river in Mississippi (northern Gulf of Mexico). Using empirical physiological data, logistic regression models were developed to predict the probabilities of Nile tilapia survival, growth, and reproduction at different combinations of temperature (14 and 30°C) and salinity …

Macrophyte Communities Of Lake Winnebago: Baseline Study Of Species Composition With Abundances And Water Quality Conditions, Mackenzie Kessenich

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Historical records from Lake Winnebago show minimal macrophyte growth; however, reports from recent years claim that macrophyte growth in some areas of the lake has reached nuisance levels. This study aimed to investigate the species of macrophytes present and their abundances in four near-shore locations, as well as measurements of multiple water quality conditions. Rake sampling was used to identify species and quantify their abundances and distributions. In addition, data were collected on light penetration, Secchi depths, and suspended algae chlorophyll concentrations at each site. These data from shallow near-shore sites reveal trends in changing water clarity and light penetration …

Exploring The Seed Bank Dynamics Of Red Brome: Longevity, Density, And Relationship To Fire, Benjamin S. Jurand

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research explores several untested aspects of the seed bank characteristics of red brome (Bromus rubens), an invasive annual grass in southwestern United States arid lands. Red brome is a formidable competitor to native plant species, both annual and perennial alike, and produces many seeds that germinate easily. The stalks of red brome contribute continuous-cover fuel loads that facilitate wildfires destructive to mature native Mojave Desert plant communities. This makes it a priority species for land managers, particularly when dealing with recovery after fire.

This project addressed questions related to the longevity of red brome seeds in soil seed banks …

The Effects Of Invasive Grasses On The Survival And Germination Of Native Forbs, Rachel A. King

Scripps Senior Theses

Invasive species are an increasingly severe conservation problem that can dramatically alter native plant communities. Although ecologists have proposed many mechanisms for the dominance of invasive species, superior competitive ability is one of the longest standing hypotheses. In winter annual plant communities, germination timing affects competition among plants. I hypothesized that grass invasion has changed the costs and benefits of early and late germination, and that species with flexible germination timing would compete better with invasives. Experiments at the Bernard Field Station in Claremont, CA and germinator trials in a controlled environment were used to examine the survivorship and germination …

Despite Losing Its Mittens, A Chinese Mitten Crab Finds Its Way To Connecticut, Nancy C. Balcom

Wrack Lines

A new invasive species for Connecticut: the Chinese mitten crab. Only one of this invasive crustacean species was spotted, but there will be more on the way.

Role Of Belowground Fungal Mutualisms And Nutrient Cycling Alteration In Invasion Success Of Polygonum Cuspidatum Sieb. & Zucc. (Polygonaceae) In The Eastern United States, Gretchen Addington

All Theses

Plant species invasion is problematic around the world due to its negative effects on native plant biodiversity, ecosystem function, and ecosystem stability. Understanding the mechanisms of plant species invasion is necessary to predict new invasions and to control current problematic species. Polygonum cuspidatum Sieb. & Zucc. (Polygonaceae, Japanese Knotweed) is an invasive species found in 40 of the 50 United States and listed as a noxious species in nine states. It is known to exclude native plant communities, and its eradication is nearly impossible. The extensive negative effects associated with this species make understanding its mechanism of invasion a prerogative. …