Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Diagnosis And Distribution Of Florida Sand Darter, Ammocrypta Bifascia (Teleostei; Percidae), In The Flint River, Georgia, Camm C. Swift, Gregory R. Moyer, Christine E. Fallon, Brett Albanese

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

Abstract: In 2013, we observed the presence of an undocumented Ammocrypta species in the lower Flint River, Georgia. The occurrence represents the first record of the genus in Georgia. Subsequent surveys at 24 sites, using seining or snorkeling, documented additional specimens from mainstem sites (n = 3) between Albany and Bainbridge and from Ichawaynochaway Creek (n = 5 sites), a large tributary to the Flint River. We used morphological and genetic data to identify specimens to species. Morphological examination included 23 morphometric and 8 meristic characters from fifteen specimens that were compared to specimens from Williams (1975). For genetic analyses, …

Species Distribution Modeling For Arid Adapted Habitat Specialists In Zion National Park, Sam Driver, Daniel R. Unger, David L. Kulhavy, Chris M. Schalk

Student Publications

The Arizona toad (Anaxyrus microscaphus) and Jones’ waxy dogbane (Cycladenia humilis var. jonesii) are habitat specialists with historical ranges in the desert southwest and specifically, Zion National Park (ZION). The machine learning method, MaxEnt, constructed species distribution models (SDMs) in ZION for the two study species at 30 m and 900 m spatial resolutions using climate, topographic, and remotely sensed data. Additionally, 900 m forecasting models were constructed to observe the shifts in suitable habitat for the years 2050 and 2070, based off two representative concentration pathway scenarios. Results indicate promising predictive power for both high …

Species Distribution Modeling For Arid Adapted Habitat Specialists In Zion National Park, Sam Driver, Chris M. Schalk, Daniel Unger, David Kulhavy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Arizona toad (Anaxyrus microscaphus) and Jones’ waxy dogbane (Cycladenia humilis var. jonesii) are habitat specialists with historical ranges in the desert southwest and specifically, Zion National Park (ZION). The machine learning method, MaxEnt, constructed species distribution models (SDMs) in ZION for the two study species at 30 m and 900 m spatial resolutions using climate, topographic, and remotely sensed data. Additionally, 900 m forecasting models were constructed to observe the shifts in suitable habitat for the years 2050 and 2070, based off two representative concentration pathway scenarios. Results indicate promising predictive power for both high …

An Invasive Species As A Threat To Native Biodiversity: Larval Competition Between Native Anurans And An Invasive Treefrog, Mckenzie Wasley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cuban Treefrogs (Osteopilus septentrionalis) are established in Florida and Louisiana and have invasive potential further westward, possibly impacting native anurans at multiple life stages. In anurans, competition at the larval stage can decrease adult fitness through slower development and smaller size at metamorphosis, ultimately decreasing recruitment rates. To examine the potential impacts of O. septentrionalis at the larval life-history stage, I quantified activity levels and growth of their tadpoles and those of two anurans native to eastern Texas: Green Treefrogs (Hyla cinerea) and Gulf Coast Toads (Incilius nebulifer). Tadpoles of the three species were …

Exposing Lettuce Plants To Cyanobacteria In A Closed Hydroponics System To Reduce Cyanobacterial Growth And Production, Emily Eberly

Honors Projects

Sandusky Bay is largely populated by cyanobacterial algal blooms, mainly formed by Planktothrix. Fertilizers containing nitrogen and phosphorus run from agricultural lands into the bay, building up excess nutrients forming eutrophic waters. The Planktothrix feed off these nutrients and grow into algal blooms. To determine a potential solution to the growth of these blooms, I implemented a hydroponics system involving Lactuca Sativa for analysis of Planktothrix growth and productivity. Four different nutrient conditions were added to a Planktothrix-only solution and a solution growing Planktothrix with the lettuce in the hydroponics system. The four conditions consisted of no nutrient …

Taxonomic Review Of South American Butter Frogs: Phylogeny, Geographic Patterns, And Species Delimitation In The Leptodactylus Latrans Species Group (Anura: Leptodactylidae), Felipe De M. Magalhães, Mariana L. Lyra, Thiago R. De Carvalho, Diego Baldo, Francisco Brusquetti, Pamela Burella, Guarino R. Colli, Marcelo C. Gehara, Rafael O. De Sá, Et Al.

Biology Faculty Publications

The Leptodactylus latrans species group currently comprises eight medium- to large-sized frog species with a convoluted taxonomic history, particularly related to the specific limits of the L. latrans complex, and the species pair Leptodactylus chaquensis–Leptodactylus macrosternum. Their homogeneous external morphology and continental geographic distribution in South America have posed severe limitations to a comprehensive review, such that taxonomic consensus and species limits remain uncertain. This is further worsened by the presence of chromatic polymorphism among coexisting species that can hardly be distinguished by external morphology. Based on a large-scale geographic sampling including multilocus DNA analyses, and acoustic …

Characterizing Patterns In Texas Gulf Coast Beach Dune Plant Species Composition, Cody Foster

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Regional vegetation patterns of Texas beach plant communities were analyzed using cluster analysis, ANOSIM, SIMPER, NMDS, and ISA for fives zones representing the foredune complex of twenty Gulf Coast beaches. ANOVA revealed that zones differ in terms of percent bare sand, percent vegetative cover, and species richness. Cluster Analysis, ANOSIM, and SIMPER results indicate that Texas beaches can be divided into northern and southern regions based on differences in species composition of plant communities. Indicator Species Analysis (ISA) indicates that northern beaches are characterized by the presence of Rayjacksonia phyllocephala, Ambrosia Strophostyles, Ambrosia psilostachya, and Panicum amarum …

Criollo Cattle As A Strategy To Maintain Output Of Ecosystem Services Under A Changing Climate, Kari E. Veblen

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Endangered Animal Protection Rights, Policies, And Practices On Zoonotic Disease Spread, Daniella Fedak-Lengel

Honors Projects

Building on field research in Costa Rica and Belize, this honors project analyzes environmental and endangered animal protection policies, rights, and practices in Central America and the Caribbean, and assesses the impact of veterinary science and biological research and practice, particularly conservation biology, on animal welfare concerns. Informed by the recent surge in awareness regarding zoonoses and zoonotic disease transmission, prevention and control, resulting from the current global pandemic of SARS-CoV-2, the project assesses the need for new and innovative types of collaboration, particularly involving conservation biologists, environmental scientists, public health experts, law and policy makers, and global trade and …

Blenny Territoriality At Oyster Landing, North Inlet Estuary, South Carolina: Seasonal Patterns And Ecological Factors, Sydney Davis, Juliana Harding

Honors Theses

Temperate oyster reef blennies use oyster shells that are still articulated as habitat year round. During the breeding season when water temperatures are > 18-20°C, many species of blenny males use the oyster valves as nesting sites. Male blennies exhibit territorial behavior when guarding their nesting sites and can interact differently with conspecific and transient species. Striped blenny (Chasmodes bosquianus) and freckled blenny (Hypsoblennius ionthas) behavior was described from April 2020 to August 2020 at Oyster Landing, North Inlet estuary, South Carolina to quantify typical blenny behavior, general presence or absence of residents, and potential environmental parameters …

Infaunal Bivalve Density And Richness In North Inlet Estuary, South Carolina: Seasonal Patterns And Ecological Factors, Valerie M. Knowles, Juliana Harding

Honors Theses

Estuarine bivalves recruit to benthic habitats after the larvae are in the planktonic stage. The observed infaunal bivalve density relates to larval supply from adult reproduction during warmer months as well as larval and juvenile mortality post-recruitment. The purpose of this research was to examine annual and seasonal patterns of infaunal bivalve density and richness in the context of habitat water temperature and salinity. Cores were collected biweekly from Bly Creek in North Inlet estuary between January 2019 and February 2020. Temperatures ranged from 9-30 ºC and salinity ranged from ~17-36 psu. Bivalves were sieved out of the cores, counted, …

Residency, Diel Movement, And Tidal Patterns Of Large Juvenile Bull Sharks (Carcharhinus Leucas) In Winyah Bay, Sc, Jeremy Lee Arnt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Aspen Soils Retain More Dissolved Organic Carbon Than Conifer Soils In A Sorption Experiment, Antra Boča, Astrid R. Jacobson, Helga Van Miegroet

Aspen Bibliography

The effect tree species have on soil organic carbon (SOC) has been hotly debated but, so far, few clear patterns have emerged. One example of a differing tree species effect on SOC are aspen forests in North America, which have been found to have more stable SOC than adjacent conifer forest stands. An important source for the formation of stable organo-mineral complexes in soil is dissolved organic carbon (DOC). DOC concentrations in mineral soil are often higher under the thick O-horizons of conifer forests than under aspen forests, but this does not correspond to more stable mineral SOC. This suggests …

Spectral Properties Of A Non-Compact Operator In Ecology, Matthew Reichenbach

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Ecologists have used integral projection models (IPMs) to study fish and other animals which continue to grow throughout their lives. Such animals cannot shrink, since they have bony skeletons; a mathematical consequence of this is that the kernel of the integral projection operator T is unbounded, and the operator is not compact. A priori, it is unclear whether these IPMs have an asymptotic growth rate λ, or a stable-stage distribution ψ. In the case of a compact operator, these quantities are its spectral radius and the associated eigenvector, respectively. Under biologically reasonable assumptions, we prove that the non-compact operators in …

Floral Variation Across Three Varieties Of The Landscape-Dominant Tree Metrosideros Polymorpha (Myrtaceae): Insights From A Hawaii Island Common Garden, Elizabeth A. Stacy, Melissa A. Johnson

Life Sciences Faculty Research

Premise of research: Metrosideros polymorpha is a landscape-dominant tree species endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. Although the group is famous for its ecological amplitude and variation in vegetative characters, little attention has been paid to variation in its “shaving brush” flowers, which occur in inflorescences of diverse sizes and colors. We aimed to determine whether the floral variation observed in natural populations is heritable and how this variation is distributed across environments and varieties of the species. Methodology: We measured seven floral traits in 93 adult trees representing three varieties of M. polymorpha in a common garden on the island …

Birds Ruffled By Big-City Lights, Lauren E. Nadler

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Synergies Among Environmental Science Research And Monitoring Networks: A Research Agenda, J. A. Jones, Peter M. Groffman, J. Blair, F. W. Davis, H. Dugan, E. E. Euskirchen, S. D. Frey, T. K. Harms, E. Hinckley, M. Kosmala, S. Loberg, S. Malone, K. Novick, S. Record, A. V. Rocha, B. L. Ruddell, E. H. Stanley, C. Sturtevant, A. Thorpe, T. White, W. R. Wieder, L. Zhai, K. Zhu

Advanced Science Research Center

Many research and monitoring networks in recent decades have provided publicly available data documenting environmental and ecological change, but little is known about the status of efforts to synthesize this information across networks. We convened a working group to assess ongoing and potential cross-network synthesis research and outline opportunities and challenges for the future, focusing on the US-based research network (the US Long-Term Ecological Research network, LTER) and monitoring network (the National Ecological Observatory Network, NEON). LTER-NEON cross-network research synergies arise from the potentials for LTER measurements, experiments, models, and observational studies to provide context and mechanisms for interpreting NEON …

Climate Warming’S Alteration Of Host-Parasite Dynamics, Ting-Hsuan Wu

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Parasites and pathogens have significant roles in host population control, and thus host-parasite interactions affect biodiversity. The important question reviewed in this paper is how changes in temperature due to climate change affect host-parasite interactions. There is mounting evidence that elevated temperatures have both beneficial and detrimental effects on parasites and independently on hosts. These independent changes result in altered host-parasite dynamics through various mechanisms. If elevated temperatures enhance parasite survival, risk of disease transmission among hosts is enhanced as well. This enhancement is dependent on temperature-induced shifts in the host lifecycle, as asynchrony in host and parasite development can …

An Examination Of The Influence Of Multi-Scale Processes And Connectivity On The Population And Assemblage Dynamics Of Headwater Fishes, Josh P. Hubbell

Dissertations

Typified by their branching pattern, headwaters are numerically abundant as the density of these habitats increases with increasing distance from the base of a dendritic river system. Connectivity among headwaters is complex, resulting in the spatial isolation of populations. Headwater specialists have evolved a suite of traits that permit these species to permanently reside within these habitats. The spatial configuration and connectivity of headwaters has repercussions for metapopulations and meta-assemblages. I investigated how multi-scale processes and connectivity influenced the patch occupancy, coexistence, movement ecology, population structure, and gene flow of headwater specialists. In chapter two, I used occupancy modeling to …

The Occurrence Of Microplastics Among Freshwater Fish Guilds In A South Carolina Reservoir, Chasity Rae Moore

Graduate Theses

No abstract provided.

Sustaining Wildlife With Recreation On Public Lands: A Synthesis Of Research Findings, Management Practices, And Research Needs, Anna B. Miller, David King, Mary Rowland, Joshua Chapman, Monica Tomosy, Christina Liang, Eric S. Abelson, Richard L. Truex

All Publications

Humans and wildlife interact in multifaceted ways on public lands with both positive and negative outcomes for each group. When managed well, wildlife-based tourism and other forms of recreation can benefit conservation goals. Public lands planners and managers often must decide how to best manage recreational activities and wildlife habitats that overlap spatially and temporally. We conducted an extensive literature review and categorized recreational activity into five types based on the use of motorized equipment, season, and location (terrestrial vs. aquatic), expanding on findings summarized in prior reviews. Our findings provide a reference for public lands planners and managers who …

Biodiversity And Ecology Of Lichens Of Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska, Roger Rosentreter

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

We inventoried lichens in Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska, USA We assembled the known information on occurrence and ecology of lichens in this park by combining field, herbarium, and literature studies. Our results provide baseline data on lichen occurrence that may be used in resource condition assessments, vulnerability assessments, long-term ecological monitoring, and resource management. We report a total of 616 taxa of lichenized fungi from the Park, plus an additional five subspecies and three varieties, all of which are new additions to the National Park Service database for this park unit. An additional five species of nonlichenized lichenicolous …

Effect Of Biocrust Development On Establishment Of Native Plants In A Salt Desert System, Merran Owen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Salt desert shrublands are semiarid, shrub-dominated ecosystems that inhabit salt- affected soils. In Great Basin salt deserts, exotic annual plants are invading and displacing native plants. Low plant productivity and slow population growth of native plants in these ecosystems makes them vulnerable to invasion and limits their ability to compete with invasive plants and return to a natural state. Active revegetation efforts, such as planting and direct seeding of native plants, are often unsuccessful for the same reasons. Biological soil crusts (communities of cyanobacteria, lichen, moss, microfungi and other microorganisms that live on the surface layer of the soil) are …

The Consequences Of Environmental Properties And Tree Spatial Neighborhood On Post-Fire Structure Of Forest In Yosemite National Park, Jelveh Tamjidi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Separating the contribution of habitat filtering and dispersal mechanisms in forming species distribution remains a challenge in community ecology. Despite the effect of environmental variables in structuring communities, only restricted numbers of them were considered as a habitat dissimilarity.

In Chapter 2, I used topography and soil properties to define habitats within the Yosemite Forest Dynamics Plot (YFDP). The soil enzymes were added in soil samples due to their important role in releasing nutrients into the soil environment. The preference of eleven species to a specific habitat were examined. Also, the relative importance of habitat filtering and dispersal limitation were …

Classification And Prediction Models For Natural Streamflow Regimes In The Arid Southwestern Usa, Angela M. Merritt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Understanding how natural variation in flow regimes influences stream ecosystem structure and function is critical to the development of effective stream management policies and actions. Spatial variation in flow regimes is well understood for stream reaches in mesic regions, but a more robust characterization of flow regimes in arid regions is needed, especially to support biological monitoring and assessment programs. Methods are specifically needed that can accurately predict the flow regime expected at ungauged reaches. We used long-term (41 y) records of mean daily flow from 287 stream reaches in the arid western USA to develop and compare several alternative …

Fall Field Report, August-November 2020, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

Two issues were of concern this fall, and both appeared to have consequences or at least similarities in Nebraska. A major die-off in New Mexico made national news: https://www.aba.org/the-data-behind-mysterious-bird-deaths-in-new-mexico/. On Sep 9, 2020, the temperature dropped from 96°F to 40°F in the Albuquerque area, a record low, winds reached 70 mph, and several inches of snow fell, killing large numbers of birds directly. Over the next few days, hundreds more dead birds were picked up. Some have linked this high mortality to birds displaced from the mountains due to fire and unfortunately being caught in the severe weather. While fire …

History Of The Seward-Branched Oak Lake Christmas Bird Count, 1993-2020, Joseph A. Gubanyi

Nebraska Bird Review

The Seward-Branched Oak Lake Christmas Bird Count (Seward-BOL CBC) began in 1993 and has been conducted every year since then except for 2010 for a total of 27 counts. Weather conditions prevented the count on the selected date in 2010 and a backup date could not be set up. The count was started for several reasons. The area west of Lincoln has a diversity of habitats including all or part of four public lakes (Branched Oak, Pawnee, Twin Lakes, and Meadowlark) as well as a diversity of terrestrial habitats on both public and private land. The circle is close to …

Index To Volume 88

Nebraska Bird Review

Index to The Nebraska Bird Review, Volume 88 (2020)

From: Aden, Scott 95

to: Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii 158 leucophrys 70, 158 oriantha 70

The Prairie Naturalist, Vol. 52, Issue 2, December 2020

The Prairie Naturalist

Comparing Native Bee Communities on Reconstructed and Remnant Prairie in Missouri • Joseph LaRose, Elisabeth B. Webb, and Deborah Finke

Patterns and Potential Causes of Changing Winter Bird Distributions in South Dakota • David L. Swanson, Reza Goljani Amipkhiz, and Mark D. Dixon

Greater prairie-chickens and sharp-tailed grouse have similarly high nest survival in the Nebraska Sandhills • Larkin A. Powell, Walter H. Schacht, Julia P. Ewalt, and Katie R. McCollum

Captive Ring-necked Pheasant Response to Very High Experimental Doses of Lead • Travis J. Runia and Alex J. Solem

Trends in a Greater Prairie Chicken Population Established by Translocation …

Socio-Hydrology: An Interplay Of Design And Self-Organization In A Multilevel World, Vicken Hillis

Human-Environment Systems Research Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

The emerging field of socio-hydrology is a special case of social-ecological systems research that focuses on coupled human-water systems, exploring how the hydrologic cycle and human cultural traits coevolve and how such coevolutions lead to phenomena of relevance to water security and sustainability. As such, most problems tackled by socio-hydrology involve some aspects of engineering design, such as large-scale water infrastructure, and self-organization in a broad context, such as cultural change at the population level and the hydrologic shift at the river basin or aquifer level. However, within the field of socio-hydrology, it has been difficult to find general theories …