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Articles 31 - 48 of 48
Full-Text Articles in Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Differentiating Black Bears (Ursus Americanus) And Brown Bears (U. Arctos) Using Linear Tooth Measurements And Identification Of Ursids From Oregon Caves National Monument, Emily Bogner
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
North American black bears and brown bears can be difficult to distinguish in the fossil record due to similar dental and skeletal morphologies. Challenges identifying ursid material from Oregon Caves National Monument (ORCA) called for an accurate tool to distinguish the species. This study utilized a large database of lower tooth lengths and ratios in an attempt to differentiate black and brown bears in North America. Further, this project examined how these linear measurements differ geographically. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) found significant differences between black and brown bears from across North America for every variable studied. Stepwise discriminant analyses (DA) …
Breeding Bird Response To Post Oak Savanna Restoration Seven Years Post Management In Eastern Texas, Courtney Mcinnerney
Breeding Bird Response To Post Oak Savanna Restoration Seven Years Post Management In Eastern Texas, Courtney Mcinnerney
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Oak savannas were once an abundant vegetation type in the Midwestern United States that have now declined to <1% of their original distribution. Historically, natural disturbances such as periodic fire and grazing maintained oak savannas, but these have been reduced or eliminated, resulting in woody encroachment and subsequent habitat loss and degradation. In 2009-10, a baseline, pre-restoration study was completed to determine vegetation characteristics, breeding bird abundances, nest success, and nest site selection at the Gus Engeling Wildlife Management Area (GEWMA) in eastern Texas. The results showed a lack of savanna vegetation structure on degraded sites and few savanna or grassland obligate bird species. The goal of this study was to determine how breeding birds of oak savanna vegetation types in eastern Texas respond to restoration effects 7 years after initial management. Post-restoration surveys completed in 2016-17 showed a change in avian assemblages from a more woodland dominated community to grassland/savanna community. The presence and breeding of savanna obligate species dickcissel (Spiza americana) and lark sparrow (Chondestes grammacus) indicates that the restoration was successful. The presence of savanna species can be linked to the herbaceous vegetation that was restored to more closely resemble historic oak savanna structure and can quantify the success of restoration efforts.
Dead Wood And Decomposition In A Tropical Forest : Vertical Patterns, Long-Term Processes, And The Role Of Lightning., Evan Matthew Gora
Dead Wood And Decomposition In A Tropical Forest : Vertical Patterns, Long-Term Processes, And The Role Of Lightning., Evan Matthew Gora
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation investigates the distribution, production, and decomposition of dead wood (or woody debris) in a lowland tropical forest within the Barro Colorado Nature Monument in Panama. Although the importance of woody debris is widely accepted, information describing components of WD pools and fluxes is generally separated in both time and space, particularly in understudied tropical forests. Here I provide a comprehensive inventory of woody debris in a lowland tropical forest (Chapter 1). Woody debris is highly aggregated and difficult to quantify, and this study demonstrates that historic estimates of woody debris pools and fluxes underestimate their uncertainty. In a …
Delineating Metrics Of Diversity For A Snake Community In A Rare Ecosystem, Zachary John Marcou
Delineating Metrics Of Diversity For A Snake Community In A Rare Ecosystem, Zachary John Marcou
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Snakes are among the least understood vertebrate groups despite their considerable diversity. A diverse community of snakes in an ecosystem can indicate a complex habitat structure that is capable of supporting a robust assemblage of other biota. I used remote photography arrays (RPA) to quantify metrics of diversity for the snake community occurring in a ~7,000–ha tract of contiguous Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris) Savanna within the Angelina National Forest (ANF; Angelina and Jasper Cos., TX), over the course of two consecutive snake activity seasons. I quantified the snake species richness, Shannon diversity, and Shannon equitability for the snake community in …
Escaping The Arrhenius Tyranny: Metabolic Compensation During Exposure To High Temperature In Daphnia, Bret L. Coggins
Escaping The Arrhenius Tyranny: Metabolic Compensation During Exposure To High Temperature In Daphnia, Bret L. Coggins
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Poikilothermic organisms experience trade-offs by differential physiological demands generated by temperature extremes. Many such organisms exhibit acclimatory effects, adjusting their metabolism and physiology to recently experienced temperatures. One such acclimatory effect is metabolic compensation, the deceleration of biological rates below Arrhenius expectations. Daphnia magna is eurythermal, and if acclimated to mildly stressful temperatures first, survives longer in lethal temperatures. This study examined the effect of ambient temperature (5°C-37°C) and acclimation history (lifetime at 10°C or 25°C) on the oxygen consumption rates of 8 genotypes of Daphnia with high or low acute temperature tolerance. There were decelerations of respiratory rates across …
Tidal Creek And Substrate Effects On Oyster Reef Associated Fish And Decapod Condition And Density, Thomas S. Funk
Tidal Creek And Substrate Effects On Oyster Reef Associated Fish And Decapod Condition And Density, Thomas S. Funk
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Oyster reefs are essential fish habitat and a worldwide loss of reefs has the potential to negatively affect reef-associated nekton populations. Along the 100 km Myrtle Beach, SC shoreline, oyster reefs ostensibly have disappeared within swash tidal creeks, which are anthropogenically altered estuarine systems that drain into the coastal ocean directly over shoreline beaches. To address oyster reef losses, a series of shell bag reefs were constructed within multiple swash tidal creeks. Reefs also were constructed in tidal creeks associated with estuaries directly connected to the ocean by an inlet. The purpose of this study was to compare nekton usage …
Effects Of Anthropogenic Noise On Mating Behavior And Fitness, Gabrielle A. Gurule-Small
Effects Of Anthropogenic Noise On Mating Behavior And Fitness, Gabrielle A. Gurule-Small
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
When environments change rapidly, adaptive phenotypic plasticity can ameliorate negative effects of environmental change on survival and reproduction. Recent evidence, however, suggests that plastic responses to human induced environmental change are often maladaptive or insufficient to overcome novel selection pressures. Anthropogenic noise is a ubiquitous and expanding disturbance with demonstrated effects on fitness-related traits of animals like stress responses, foraging, vigilance, and pairing success. Elucidating the lifetime fitness effects of noise has been challenging because long-lived vertebrate systems are typically studied in this context. In both chapters described herein, I reared field crickets, Teleogryllus oceanicus, in masking traffic noise, …
Origins Of Animal Cell Adhesion, Jennyfer Mora Mitchell
Origins Of Animal Cell Adhesion, Jennyfer Mora Mitchell
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
A fundamental requirement for multicellularity is cell adhesion. This includes mechanisms by which cells adhere to each other and to their secreted extracellular matrix (ECM). Two well characterized adhesion complexes in animals include: 1) adherens junctions (AJs), which are involved in cell-cell adhesion and composed of cadherin receptors, p120-, α- and β-catenin, and 2) focal adhesions (FAs), which are involved in cell-ECM adhesion and include proteins such as integrins, vinculin, paxillin, talin and focal adhesion kinase (FAK). The molecular components of AJs are widely conserved in animals, and largely absent in non-animals. In contrast, the molecular components of FAs have …
Intraspecific Differences In Belowground Associations And Seedling Root Morphology For The Biofuel Crop, Panicum Virgatum., Erin Renee Kinnetz
Intraspecific Differences In Belowground Associations And Seedling Root Morphology For The Biofuel Crop, Panicum Virgatum., Erin Renee Kinnetz
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The perennial C4 grass Panicum virgatum (switchgrass) is a promising bioenergy feedstock. Switchgrass is symbiotic with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). I examined 12 varieties of switchgrass grouped into 2 ecotypes (upland, lowland) to see if they differed in AMF abundance and root colonization using the GLBRC Variety Trials experiment. There was higher root colonization of lowland ecotype. A greenhouse experiment evaluated the role of live soil organisms in seedling establishment of 11 varieties. Live soil increased seedling survival, growth and influenced root morphology. Ecotypes differed in root architecture. Lowland developed a higher specific root length (SRL), a trait associated …
Niche Modeling For The Giant Panda, Ailuropoda Melanoleuca, And The Original Panda, Ailurus Fulgens: Habitat Preferences And Evolutionary Consequences, Lauren M. Lyon
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The well-known symbol for conservation, the giant panda bear, and the original red panda have been forced into remote habitats due to anthropogenic disturbance, making ecological study difficult. Therefore the first known species distribution model was created to predict the most likely areas of occurrence within the known range of these elusive animals. These models were then projected onto North America and evaluated against existing breeding programs. Additionally, the close proximity of the Gray Fossil Site and the discovery of the most complete fossil red panda specimens in the world allowed ecomorphological comparisons between the modern red panda, Ailurus fulgens …
Distribution Changes, Genetic Population Structure, And A Novel Environmental Dna (Edna) Detection Method For Darters (Subgenus Nothonotus) In The Upper Ohio River Watershed, Anthony S. Honick
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In the upper Ohio River watershed three species of small-bodied benthic fish the Bluebreast Darter, Etheostoma (Nothonotus) camurum (Cope), the Tippecanoe Darter, Etheostoma (Nothonotus) tippecanoe Jordan and Evermann, and the Spotted Darter, Etheostoma (Nothonotus) maculatum Kirtland previously existed in disjunct distributions due to poor water quality and habitat degradation. Signs of recovery indicated that these species were moving from areas of refugia into the deeper mainstem waters of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers and expanding their distributions. To provide information for the proper conservation management of these species this dissertation was divided into three stages: 1) distribution records were updated …
Competition And Community Interactions Of Two Generalist Herbivores, Elizabeth Ellen Barnes
Competition And Community Interactions Of Two Generalist Herbivores, Elizabeth Ellen Barnes
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Competition can have far-reaching consequences for the fitness and distribution of many organisms. In herbivorous insects, competition mediated by a third organism is more common than direct competition and has a strong effect on insect communities; yet most research on indirect competition among herbivores focuses on dietary specialists, and those studies that do include generalists tend to rear them on agricultural crops. My project examines species interactions at three levels: intraspecific competition (within species), interspecific competition (between species), and ecosystem engineering effects at the community level. I studied competition and community interactions of two temporally-separated species of herbivorous insects, western …
The Effect Of Artificial Light Pollution On Orientation Of Hatchling Loggerhead Sea Turtles (Caretta Caretta) In The Grand Strand Region, South Carolina, Emily S. Asp
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Sea turtle hatchlings primarily utilize sight to detect differences in elevation and light intensity present along the horizon to navigate from the nest to the water’s edge. The addition of artificial lights can cause visual misdirection, resulting in disorientation (aimlessly wandering in circular paths) or misorientation (moving in distinct paths away from ocean). Extensive research has been done on effects of high levels of artificial light but little on effects of comparatively lower levels of artificial light on hatchling sea turtle orientation. This study examined these lower intensity areas to identify if there is a threshold of artificial light above …
Effects Of Invasive Shrub Honeysuckle (Lonicera Maackii) And Forest Composition On Bird Communities In Woodland Stands., Katie Rae Lynch
Effects Of Invasive Shrub Honeysuckle (Lonicera Maackii) And Forest Composition On Bird Communities In Woodland Stands., Katie Rae Lynch
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Invasive species pose a threat to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems by decreasing biodiversity (Didham et al. 2005). Amur bush honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) has typically reduced native plant diversity and altered animal communities by influencing animal abundance and activity (Collier and Vankat 2002). This study was intended to determine whether honeysuckle density or other characteristics of forested stands influence avian diversity, whether impacts are seasonally dependent, and whether correlations exist between attributes of forested stands and honeysuckle density. In order to test the hypotheses, thirteen forest stands within the Louisville Metropolitan Area were selected. They had similar tree composition …
Effect Of Migration, Carrying Capacity, And Fecundity On The Formation Of Clinal Patterns During Range Expansions., Neha J. Angal
Effect Of Migration, Carrying Capacity, And Fecundity On The Formation Of Clinal Patterns During Range Expansions., Neha J. Angal
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Range expansions, empirically and in simulations, lead to clinal patterns of genetic diversity. Clines are often used as spatial markers of past migrations. This study investigated the effects of migration, growth, and carrying capacities on clinal patterns during range expansions, using forward-time simulations in Nemo. Initial results show, in the absence of prior population structure, range expansions result in a loss of diversity strongly affected by migration, growth, and carrying capacity. This loss of diversity did not persist to the final generation, corresponding to 10,000 years, indicating clinal patterns are less durable than previously assumed—challenging the utility of clinal patterns …
Exploring The Relationship Between Behaviour And Neurochemistry In The Polyphenic Spider, Anelosimus Studiosus (Araneae: Theridiidae), Jennifer B. Price
Exploring The Relationship Between Behaviour And Neurochemistry In The Polyphenic Spider, Anelosimus Studiosus (Araneae: Theridiidae), Jennifer B. Price
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The importance of social behaviour is evident in human society, but there are both costs and benefits associated with cooperation and sociality throughout the animal kingdom. At what point do the benefits outweigh the costs, and when do selective pressures favour sociality and colonization over solitude and independence? To investigate these questions, we have focused on an anomalous species of spider, Anelosimus studiosus, also known now as the northern social spider. Throughout its broad range, A. studiosus is solitary and aggressive, but recently, colonies of cooperative and social individuals have been observed at northern latitudes. This leads to two …
Plant Community Responses To Invasive Shrub And Vine Removal In An Urban Park Woodland., Eric Richard Moore
Plant Community Responses To Invasive Shrub And Vine Removal In An Urban Park Woodland., Eric Richard Moore
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Counter to what some people think, urban areas can be biodiversity hotspots. Maintaining this biodiversity can be challenging, since exotic shrubs and vines block sunlight and threaten native plant regeneration. Since 2007, the Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy (LOPC) has spent $2 million on invasive plant management in Cherokee Park. Before the project began, long-term transects were established by the LOPC to collect baseline presence/absence data on 11 invasive plant species. In 2014, I revisited these transects and documented presence/absence data on the entire plant community. I found that four species (garlic mustard, winter creeper, Japanese honeysuckle, and English ivy) have …
Diel Patterns Of Foraging Aggression And Antipredator Behavior In The Trashline Orb-Weaving Spider, Cyclosa Turbinata, James C. Watts
Diel Patterns Of Foraging Aggression And Antipredator Behavior In The Trashline Orb-Weaving Spider, Cyclosa Turbinata, James C. Watts
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Few studies have rigorously assessed the adaptive value of diel rhythms in animals. We laid the groundwork for assessing the adaptive rhythm hypothesis by assaying diel rhythms of foraging and antipredator behavior in the orb-weaving spider Cyclosa turbinata. When confronted with a predator stimulus in experimental arenas, C. turbinata exhibited thanatosis behavior more frequently and for longer durations during the day. However, assays of antipredator response within webs revealed more complex diel patterns of avoidance behaviors and no pattern of avoidance behavior duration. Assays of prey capture behavior found that the likelihood of exhibiting prey capture behavior varied significantly …