Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Ms Environmental Biology Capstone Project, Samantha Ortega

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

This project is presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Science in Environmental Biology at Regis University. Chapter 1 is a literature review that discusses the management implications of designing bird habitat on anthropogenic structures. Chapter 2 is a grant proposal to explore niche dominance by anthropophilic bird species in Denver, CO. Chapter 3 is a journal manuscript discussing how musth impacts captive bull Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) behavior at Denver Zoo. Finally, Chapter 4 is a stakeholder analysis for Northern Bobwhite recovery at Bridgestone-Firestone Centennial Wilderness Area, White County, Tennessee.

Re-Storying Grant Creek: A Case Study Of Relational Dynamics On A Degraded Montana Stream, Seamus Rucci Land

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration began in 2021, and after a history of contentious ethical debates, ecological restoration is increasingly portrayed as a viable framework for combating environmental degradation and supporting more healthy and stable social-ecological systems. The proposed ecological restoration of Grant Creek, a degraded stream near Missoula, Montana, offers an opportunity to connect a restoration site to the broader, rapidly growing field of restoration practice. It also allows the opportunity to forward the ‘relational turn’ proposed by many in the sustainability sciences as an ontological and methodological means to move beyond positivist portrayals of social-ecological systems, which …

Joint Management Of Upland & Aquatic Habitat For The California Red-Legged Frog & California Tiger Salamander, Kyle E. Verblaauw

Master's Projects and Capstones

As federally and state protected amphibians, the California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense) and the California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii) are recipients of ample management focus. Both species face a variety of threats, including habitat loss and alteration, introduction of non-native species, spread of disease, and effects of climate change. While management plans for the California tiger salamander and California red-legged frog exist, they frequently do not consider both species in tandem and often contain multiple shortcomings. This document aims to address the shortfalls of current management by providing practical recommendations for jointly managing the upland and …

Incorporating Chlorophyll-A Levels Into An Integral Projection Model Of Gizzard Shad (Dorosoma Cepedianum) In The Upper Mississippi River, Raquel Castromonte, Gregory J. Sandland, James Peirce

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Species Abundance Distributions And The Canon Of Classical Music, Noelle Atkin

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Do Environmental Toxins Predict Violent Crimes?, Tyler Stahl

Symposium of Student Scholars

Do chemical pollutants that persistent in the environment and bioaccumulate in the body affect human health and behavior? Could these Persistent, Bioaccumulative, and Toxic (PBT) chemicals play a role in the cause of violent crimes due to deterioration of mental and cognitive functions? In the past, Mercury, a PBT chemical, has been shown in salmon to be associated with aggression. Could similar aggression occur in humans exposed to mercury through a toxic spill? Two sources of data are utilized in this analysis. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Annual Toxic Release Inventory publishes data on toxic releases into the environment and …

Interspersed Denuded Zone (Idz): How Patchy Leaf Litter Dynamics In A Buckthorn-Invaded Urban Woodland Can Affect Microarthropod Species Richness, Angela Stenberg

DePaul Discoveries

Biodiversity loss may serve as a key diagnostic of the Anthropocene. An important driver of this loss is by means of invasive species. In this study of a forest preserve in Chicago, Illinois we examined Interspersed Denuded Zones (IDZs for short), which are areas of patchy leaf litter in invaded forests caused in this case by the rapid decomposition of litter from buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica). We characterized the leaf litter mass in IDZs and enumerated litter-inhabiting microarthropod populations. We found that plots of high buckthorn density are associated with IDZs: there was significantly less leaf litter mass in …

Modeling Reproduction Influencers Of An Endangered Oak, Camila Cortez

DePaul Discoveries

The endemic oak, Quercus brandegeei has been labeled as endangered by the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species due to its limited genetic diversity and lack of regeneration. The oak (Quercus) species is a keystone species in many parts of the world and has been facing various challenges to their survival (Westwood 2017) making efforts to support and protect endemic oaks all the more ecologically and socially imperative. There are challenges to identifying threats as there are many unknown characteristics of Q. brandegeei’s biology that are essential to carrying out conservation efforts. To develop a greater understanding of …

Covid-19: A One Health Issue, Karen Gruszynski

Cumberland Mountain Naturalist

COVID-19 has very rapidly become part of modern societal lexicon as the disease highlights the importance understanding zoonotic diseases and the impact they can have on human life. With a 177million human cases and 3.82million deaths globally at the time of this publication, the "One Health" nature of the disease has had a lasting impact across the planet. As the disease spread rapidly, it highlighted the dissemination of information through social media and other sources. With this in mind, Dr. Gary Vroegindewey, Director for One Health at LMU-CVM, put forth the idea to have students collect and summarize information about …

Taphonomy Of Late Jurassic (Tithonian) Morrison Formation Apatosaurus Sp. Vertebrae Found Associated With Teeth From Allosaurus Sp. And Ceratosaurus Sp., And Body Size Extrapolation From The Associated Theropod Teeth., Greg C. Agyan

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

An Apatosaurus sp. locality from Dinosaur National Monument designated DNM-15 was excavated in 1985, and associated with two Allosaurus teeth and one Ceratosaurus tooth that were near one of the caudal vertebrae. The Ceratosaurus tooth was buried between an overlying rib and that same caudal vertebra. The caudal vertebrae of the DNM-15 Apatosaurus were intact and articulated, but the anterior skeleton was mostly absent, with a row of articulated sacral vertebrae in close association with a femur. Two other Allosaurus teeth were reported near the preserved ilium of the Apatosaurus, but they could not be located in the collections. …

Examining The Invasion Of A Bush Honeysuckle Using Climate Analysis, Andrew Palmer

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Within the study of invasive plants, particular importance is placed on elucidating the mechanisms by which these plants proliferate and dominate within their introduced ranges. Several theories have been advanced to explain these invasions, each with different implications for the predicted range of invasive plants. Recent studies have provided support for the application of several invasion theories to Lonicera maackii, or what is more commonly referred to as bush honeysuckle. This species provides a unique opportunity to examine the efficacy of these theories in explaining the range expansion of invasive plants. L. maackii is endemic to eastern Asia, but …

Mussel Musings On The Powell River, Aggy Vanderpool

Cumberland Mountain Naturalist

No abstract provided.

A Record Of Vapour Pressure Deficit Preserved In Wood And Soil Across Biomes, Adrian Broz, Gregory J. Retallack, Toby M. Maxwell, Lucas C.R. Silva

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The drying power of air, or vapour pressure deficit (VPD), is an important measurement of potential plant stress and productivity. Estimates of VPD values of the past are integral for understanding the link between rising modern atmospheric carbon dioxide (pCO₂) and global water balance. A geological record of VPD is needed for paleoclimate studies of past greenhouse spikes which attempt to constrain future climate, but at present there are few quantitative atmospheric moisture proxies that can be applied to fossil material. Here we show that VPD leaves a permanent record in the slope (S) of least-squares …

Understanding Patterns And Functional Impacts Of An Invasive Tree And Its Biological Control In A Riparian System, Annie L. Henry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Invasive species have become an inextricable part of the landscape, particularly in riparian plant communities, and removal is often a key component of restoration programs. Biological control (biocontrol) is a method of removal that is often both efficient and effective. However, the impact of biocontrol on target species and indirect effects from invasive species removal can be hard to predict. While monitoring the impact of invasive species removal usually involves some species-based assessment such as changes in diversity, historically dominant species or native species, these strategies do not typically provide insight into the mechanisms underlying plant community response to removal. …

Preclassic Cultural Eutrophication Of Lake Petén Itzá, Lowland Guatemala, By The Early Maya Of Nixtun-Ch'ich', Brooke A. Birkett

Masters Theses

"Paleolimnological evidence indicates the ancient Maya transformed lowland terrestrial ecosystems by felling forest vegetation to construct large civic-ceremonial centers and expand agriculture. The effects of prehistoric Maya land alterations on lake trophic status, however, remain poorly understood. We analyzed a 515-cm-long sediment core from Lake Petén Itzá, lowland Guatemala, to infer paleoenvironmental changes resulting from Maya occupation of the riparian archaeological site of Nixtun-Ch'ich'. Substantial increases in charcoal and fecal stanol concentrations indicate Maya occupation of the Candelaria Peninsula by the late Early Preclassic period beginning ca. 1400 cal yr Before the Common Era (hereafter BCE), despite scant archaeological evidence …

How A Simple Question About Freshwater Inflow To Estuaries Shaped A Career, Paul A. Montagna

Gulf and Caribbean Research

Chance and good luck led to a career studying how freshwater inflow drives estuary processes. In 1986, someone asked me: How much fresh water has to flow to a bay for it to be healthy? The question shaped my career. There is probably no better place on Earth to compare effects caused by inflow differences than the Texas coast, because the major estuarine systems lie in a climatic gradient where runoff decreases 56—fold from the Louisiana border in the northeast to the Mexico border in the southwest. This estuary—comparison experiment was used to study inflow effects. The science evolved from …

Variation In Personality Among Semi-Wild Myanmar Timber Elephants, Sateesh Venkatesh

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines two personality traits: exploration and neophobia, which could influence human-elephant conflicts. Thirty-one semi-wild elephants were tested over two trials using a custom novel puzzle tube containing three tasks and three rewards. Our studies show that elephants do vary significantly between individuals in both exploration and neophobia.

Introduction To Neutrosophic Genetics, Florentin Smarandache

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

Neutrosophic Genetics is the study of genetics using neutrosophic logic, set, probability, statistics, measure and other neutrosophic tools and procedures. In this paper, based on the Neutrosophic Theory of Evolution (that includes degrees of Evolution, Neutrality (or Indeterminacy), and Involution) – as extension of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, we show the applicability of neutrosophy in genetics, and we present within the frame of neutrosophic genetics the following concepts: neutrosophic mutation, neutrosophic speciation, and neutrosophic coevolution.

Period Estimation And Noise In A Neutrally Stable Stochastic Oscillator, Kevin R. Sanft, Ben F. M. Intoy

Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics

The periods of the orbits for the well-mixed cyclic three-species Lotka-Volterra model far away from the fixed point are studied. For finite system sizes, a discrete stochastic approach is employed and periods are found via wavelet analysis. As the system size is increased, a hierarchy of approximations ranging from Poisson noise to Gaussian noise to deterministic models are utilized. Based on the deterministic equations, a mathematical relationship between a conserved quantity of the model and the period of the population oscillations is found. Exploiting this property we then study the deterministic conserved quantity and period noise in finite size systems.

Maximum Likelihood Estimation Of Species Trees And Anomaly Zone Detection Using Ranked Gene Trees, Anastasiia Kim

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

A phylogenetic tree represents the evolutionary relationships among a set of organisms. Gene trees can be used to reconstruct phylogenetic trees. The methods in this dissertation focus on the gene tree topologies with emphasis on ranked gene tree topologies. A ranked tree depicts the order in which nodes appear in the tree together with topological relationships among gene lineages. One challenge that arises during phylogenetic inference is the existence of the anomaly zones, the regions of branch-length space in the species tree that can produce gene trees that have topologies differing from the species tree topology but are more probable …

Reproductive Effort Of Montastraea Cavernosa Across Depth In The Context Of Both Climate Change Refugia And Emergent Disease, Jeanne Bloomberg

LSU Master's Theses

As coral populations on shallow reefs decline globally, mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCE) have been suggested as potential coral refugia in the face of climate changes, leading to the development of a comprehensive deep reef refugia hypothesis. The current study assesses the climate and disease refuge potential of MCEs in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) for the gonochoric, broadcast-spawning species Montastraea cavernosa. Polyp, population, and total habitat fecundities were estimated across the species’ depth range, and changes to population oocyte production over time due to recent ecosystem disturbances were considered. The number of gonads producing oocytes in each polyp and oocyte …

Long-Term Ndvi And Recent Vegetation Cover Profiles Of Major Offshore Island Nesting Sites Of Sea Turtles In Saudi Waters Of The Northern Arabian Gulf, Rommel H. Maneja, Jeffrey D. Miller, Wenzhao Li, Hesham El-Askary, Ace Vincent B. Flandez, Joshua J. Dagoy, Joselito Francis A. Alcaria, Abdullajid U. Basali, Khaled A. Al-Abdulkader, Ronald A. Loughland, Mohamed A. Qurban

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Vegetation is an important ecological component of offshore islands in the Arabian Gulf (AG), which maintains long-term resilience of these islands. This is achieved by influencing sediment retention and moisture acquisition via condensation during periods of high humidity and by providing a variety of microhabitats for island fauna. The resilience of offshore islands’ ecosystems in the Saudi waters is important because they host the largest number of nesting hawksbill and green turtles in the AG. This study defines the characteristics and the long-term trends in vegetation cover of the offshore islands used by sea turtles as nesting grounds in the …

Mathematical Modeling For Studying The Sustainability Of Plants Subject To The Stress Of Two Distinct Herbivores, B. Chen-Charpentier, M. C.A. Leite, O. Gaoue, F. B. Agusto

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

Viability of plants, especially endangered species, are usually affected by multiple stressors, including insects, herbivores, environmental factors and other plant species. We present new mathematical models, based on systems of ordinary differential equations, of two distinct herbivore species feeding (two stressors) on the same plant species. The new feature is the explicit functional form modeling the simultaneous feedback interactions (synergistic or additive or antagonistic) between the three species in the ecosystem. The goal is to investigate whether the coexistence of the plant and both herbivore species is possible (a sustainable system) and under which conditions sustainability is feasible. Our theoretical …

Density-Dependent Development Impacts The Success Of Wolbachia-Based Mosquito Control Programs, Alyssa Petroski, Lauren M. Childs, Michael Andrew Robert

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Development Of Methods To Track Oyster Movement Under Field Conditions In North Inlet Estuary, South Carolina, Alyssa M. Leclaire

Honors Theses

Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) reefs provide important habitat structure and ecosystem services in saltmarsh tidal creek estuaries. Reef persistence depends on growth of resident individuals and regular recruitment to maintain suitable shell substrate. Boat wakes potentially physically displace oyster clumps. The objective of this research was to develop methods to track oyster clump position and biomass on two natural fringing oyster reefs in North Inlet estuary, South Carolina. Boat traffic (number of boats making wakes per day), oyster clump displacement (cm/d) over time, oyster biomass (g dry tissue), and condition index (biomass/g dry shell weight) were quantified from …

Checklist Of The Freshwater Sponges (Porifera: Spongillida) Of Tennessee, John E. Copeland

Cumberland Mountain Naturalist

Of the ~8,500 sponge species that are known to exist, approximately 3% inhabit freshwater. Taxonomically, freshwater sponges are divided into 6 families with less than 250 identified species. Of these, 33 species of freshwater sponge can be found in the Nearctic Biogeographical realm with 13 species documented in Tennessee waters. Species of three families, Metanidae, Potamolepidae, and Spongillidae, are known to occur in the United States but only members of Potamolepidae and Spongillidae have been collected from Tennessee waters. This article presents a species checklist with currently known distribution information.

Eelgrass Health Survey And Results, Nicholas B. Anderson, Catherine M. Ashcraft, Dante D. Torio, Frederick T. Short

Natural Resources & the Environment

Researchers at the University of New Hampshire designed, tested, and conducted an eelgrass health survey. The primary goal of the survey was to collect health ratings from respondents who had viewed pre-selected images of eelgrass representing a wide range of health conditions. Survey results were used as a calibration and validation to a novel eelgrass health index developed using video-monitoring. Two secondary goals of this this survey were the identification of plant-specific and environmental characteristics important to respondents and the introduction of the new eelgrass health index. This published dataset includes de-identified survey respondent background and demographic data, the survey …

The Bioethical Significance Of “The Origin Of Man’S Ethical Behavior” (October 1941, Unpublished) By Ernest Everett Just And Hedwig Anna Schnetzler Just, Theodore Walker Jr.

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

Abstract –

E. E. Just (1883-1941) is an acknowledged “pioneer” in cell biology, and he is perhaps the pioneer in study of egg cell fertilization. Here we discover that Just also made pioneering contributions to general biology and evolutionary bioethics.

Within Just’s published contributions to observational cell biology, there are substantial fragments of his theory of ethical behavior, a theory with roots in cell biology. In addition to such previously available fragments, Just’s fully developed theory is now available. This recently discovered unpublished book-length manuscript argues for the biological origins of ethical behavior (evolving from cells to humans, within a …

The Undergraduate Student’S Guide To Geometric Morphometrics, Erika Crispo

Open Educational Resources

Embarking on a new research endeavor can be a daunting task. User guides, books, and published articles are written for an audience that already has some background experience in the field. Undergraduate students like you, who are at the very beginning of their research careers, often struggle to make sense of these documents. Furthermore, students like you often attempt to do so while balancing heavy course loads. Thus, I have written this document to help ease the burden so that you have more time to ponder the interesting scientific questions instead of digging through pages upon pages of documentation. I …

Antifungal Defense Molecules From Bacterial Symbionts Of North American Trachymyrmex Ants, Georgia Scherer

CMC Senior Theses

Defensive symbioses, in which microbes provide molecular defenses for an animal host, hold great potential as untapped sources of therapeutically useful antibiotics. Fungus-growing ants use antifungal defenses from bacterial symbionts to suppress pathogenic fungi in their nests. Preliminary chemical investigations of symbiotic bacteria from this large family of ants have uncovered novel antifungal molecules with therapeutic potential, such as dentigerumycin and selvamicin.

In this study, the bacterial symbionts of North American Trachymyrmex fungus-growing ants are investigated for antifungal molecules. Plate-based bioassays using ecologically-relevant fungal pathogens confirmed that these bacteria have antifungal activity. In order to purify and identify the antifungal …