Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

A Genetic Analysis Of The Rare Endemic Astragalus Ripleyi Barneby, Juan Antonio Jaramillo-Chico

Master's Theses

Astragalus ripleyi Barneby is a rare endemic species found in the San Luis Valley of the southern portions of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and New Mexico. Though not federally listed as endangered, the species is on the Bureau of Land Management’s Sensitive Species List, warranting protection and continued management. This study aims to provide information about the genetic health of the species to inform conservation efforts and provide updated management recommendations. A genetic health analysis was conducted investigating the levels of diversity present in the species, how genetic diversity is structured across the known range of the species and …

Zero Textbook Cost Syllabus For Env 3070 (Agroecology), Benjamin Iuliano

Open Educational Resources

Our relationships with the food we eat are deeply personal, but also connect us to a wide array of people, plants, animals, and landscapes around the world. Encompassing a diversity of scholarly approaches, the field of agroecology seeks to understand the interactions among these components, draw attention to the consequences of our present industrial food system, and create the conditions for more sustainable and just futures. In this course, students will learn about the science, practice, and social movement of agroecology through lectures, course discussions, field trips, and hands-on activities.

Drivers And Consequences Of Changes In Nectar Microbiome Composition Across Spatial And Biological Scales, Daniel A. Barker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Microbial communities inhabiting floral nectar, known as the nectar microbiome, are important mediators of plant-pollinator interactions. However, the ecological and environmental factors that shape the composition of these microbial communities remain poorly understood. While previous studies have examined the effects of a few microbial groups, typically independent of one another, on one plant or pollinator species, this dissertation takes a wide-scale approach to explore how abiotic conditions and biotic interaction’s structure microbial communities within floral nectar. Furthermore, I also quantify how variation in microbial richness and identity influences pollinator behavior and plant reproductive success.

This dissertation shows that microbial abundance …

How Individual Traits Predict Distribution Patterns And Community Convergence, Zachary K. Lange

Biology Dissertations - Archive

One of the fundamental questions in biology is whether natural conditions lead species and communities toward predictable outcomes. Answering this question requires understanding how traits of individual organisms are connected to species- and community-level patterns. In Chapter 2, I examined how thermal physiology and environmental temperatures interact to determine the distribution patterns of Anolis lizards on the Greater Antilles. I combined lab-measured thermal traits (critical thermal minimum: CT_min, critical thermal maximum: CT_max, thermal preference: T_pref) with occurrence and abundance data from 21 species of Anolis lizards collected from extensive mark-resight surveys of communities across …

The Evolution Of The Stress Response In The Trinidadian Killifish: Ecological Drivers And Maternal Mediation, Mikaela E. Feder

Biology Dissertations - Archive

Ecological variables can induce the stress response in organisms. Yet, few studies have tested for evolutionary shifts in stress responses across ecological gradients. In these studies, we used Trinidadian killifish found in sites with predators (high predation, HP) and sites where they are the only fish present (killifish only, KO). HP and KO populations differ in a suite of behavioral and life-history traits, making the Trinidadian killifish an excellent model to examine evolutionary physiology. My dissertation addresses the knowledge gap by examining: (1) how baseline cortisol differs in wild-caught Trinidadian killifish found in HP and KO sites, (2) the influence …

Unveiling The Bacterial Communities Of Aphaenogaster: Taxonomic Composition, Developmental And Species Influences, And The Impact Of Climate Change, Lily Kelleher

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Ants are vital keystone species in many ecosystems because they provide ecosystem services such as: seed dispersal, soil bioturbation, and pest control. However, ant bacterial symbioses remain largely unstudied, but these interactions are crucial because microbes play a vital role in the ants’ overall health. Today, global climate change is impacting our biodiversity, and we can use information about how changing temperatures impact the symbiotic bacterial communities associated with ants to predict future impact. Aphaenogaster rudis and A. fulva remain understudied in terms of their bacterial community and are important North American species. For this study, ants from several colonies …

Distribution And Ecology Of The Cedar Keys Mole Skink (Plestiodon Egregius Insularis), Kevin M. Enge, Louis A. Somma, Paul E. Moler, Travis M. Thomas, Matthew T. Fedler, John M. Matter, Dennis C. Haney

Papers in Herpetology

We conducted surveys for the Cedar Keys Mole Skink, Plestiodon egregius insularis (Mount), during 1989– 1999 and 2015–2024, examined museum vouchers, and compiled personal observations from others to determine the status and distribution of this subspecies, which has the smallest geographic distribution of the five subspecies and is being considered for federal listing. We observed Cedar Keys Mole Skinks on Airstrip Island, Atsena Otie, Cedar Point, Deer Island, North Key, Scale Key, Seahorse Key, Snake Key, and possibly Dog Island. We have anecdotal reports of Mole Skinks on Way Key, which contains the most potential habitat and is the main …

Adaptive Evolution Shapes The Transmissibility Of West Nile Virus In New York State, Sean M. Bialosuknia

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses), which are maintained in nature in complex transmission cycles involving hematophagic invertebrates and their vertebrate hosts, are the cause of a significant and expanding global health burden. Defining arbovirus-host interactions is necessary if we are to understand the adaptive and epidemiological potential of arboviruses. The results presented with West Nile virus (WNV Flaviviridae: Orthoflavivirus), are a compilation of such studies. WNV is the most prevalent arboviral pathogen in the U.S. and the most geographically distributed arbovirus in the world. Despite the evolutionary potential of these RNA viruses, WNV and other arboviruses have experienced only limited …

Chinese Tallow Long-Term Impact On Stand Dynamics In A Bottomland Hardwood Forest Following Vegetation Management, Nicklaus R. Langlois

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chinese tallow (Triadica sebifera (L.) Small) is an invasive tree known to have negative impacts on bottomland hardwood forests. Chinese tallow is proficient in reproducing and surviving in bottomland hardwood forests because it is more flood and shade tolerant than most native trees. The long-term effectiveness of Chinese tallow control is an important topic to research as only a few long-term studies of Chinese tallow control have been conducted. A 10-year re-measurement of 22 paired plots installed in 2012 on the Pineywoods Mitigation Bank near Diboll, Texas following herbicide treatments examined Chinese tallow and native tree stand structure. Each …

Antimicrobials Produced By Ants: Chemical Properties And Microbe Specificity, Katy Chon

Master's Theses

Antibiotic resistance is a growing public health concern worldwide, and for over a decade, we have been witnessing the growth of difficult to treat infectious diseases caused by bacteria that are becoming resistant to antibiotics. This resistance can be mostly related to the misusing and improper use of antibiotics in both humans and animals. To restore this problem, humans have turned to new sources for the production of antibiotics. In this study, we focused on using ants. Social insects, including ants and bees, have faced strong disease pressures during their evolution and have developed a range of methods to fight …

The Descent Of Anolis: Assemblages, Convergence, And Ecomorphological Evolution, Christopher G. Anderson

Biology ETDs

The evolutionary outcomes we observe in modern organisms, particularly associations between phenotypes and environments, have been and remain an invaluable tool in interpreting the biological phenomena that shape our world. In the following chapters, I leverage a comprehensive phylogenetic and morphological dataset for 351 species comprising a diverse group of arboreal lizards, the Anolis clade, to explore how communities and morphologies evolve. First, I characterized patterns among coexisting lineages of Anolis to reveal a general pattern of phylogenetic relatedness among lineages comprising assemblages and identify differences attributable to a biogeographic variable. Then I examined the morphological consequences associated with the …

Literature Review Nature-Based Art Therapy Exploring Connections And Relationships, Janell Lopez-Curtis

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Art therapy is a modality used in clinical psychotherapy. It is supported through both quantitative and qualitative research. Branching out from art therapy is nature-based art therapy. This branch of expressive therapies holds the potential to be beneficial as art therapy due to the interconnected access to the scientific fields of ecology, ecopsychology, art therapy, expressive therapies, and other nature-based therapeutic activities; this includes intersectionality in ecological theories such as ecofeminism and deep ecology as well. Through an exploration of literature, this paper will provide definitions and theory-based support through reviewing clinical psychotherapy, evidence-based practices, and art therapy theories. The …

Environmental Biology Masters Capstone, Antonio Gonzalez-Pita

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Human wildlife interactions (HWI) pose a complex challenge for wildlife managers. Human encroachment into wildlife habitat and the growing number of outdoor recreationists are increasing the frequency of contact and conflict, especially in regions such as the Front Range of Colorado. Geographic information systems (GIS), which use a combination of remote sensing and environmental survey data, allow for predictive spatial analyses of where human wildlife interactions are likely to occur. I used publicly reported observations of moose to create spatial predictive maps in a species distribution model framework. Slope and elevation were shown to be the strongest predictors of HWI, …

Impacts Of Anthropogenic Sedimentation On Shell-Bed Habitats In Lake Tanganyika, Africa, Michael Soreghan, Andrew Cohen, Michael M. Mcglue, Kevin M. Yeager, Emily Ryan, Alison Johns, Ishmael Kimirei

Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications

Lake Tanganyika, in central Africa, contains a diverse and endemic fauna under threat from global climate change, overfishing, and nearshore sediment pollution. Previous studies of sediment pollution focused justifiably on impacts along rocky shorelines where diversity is high, but Lake Tanganyika also contains widespread shelly accumulations (shell beds) unprecedented in the modern East African lakes, but where impacts are less con- strained. Here we integrate multiple datasets from three sites along the Tanzanian shoreline to explore how variation in sedimentation rates and sediment quality impacts shell-bed substrate and diversity and abundance of ostracodes and sponges across sites that exhibit varying …

Nekton Community Responses To Living Shoreline Restorations In Alabama, Shelby Kuck, Christopher Grant, Matheus De Barros, Alexandra Rodriguez, Ronald Baker

Gulf and Caribbean Research

No abstract provided.

Interdisciplinary Learning: How Different Ways Of Thinking Can Fuel Passion And Expand Understanding., Allison Amy Peschek

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This Capstone project was created to show the profound experience resulting from an extended range of interdisciplinary learning, and how different methods, when paired together, can enhance a learning experience. This was a personal project of exploration into those different angles, and primarily focused on avenues of logical and creating learning, respectively. These methods have been implemented by this author often in the past, but this capstone will explore this concept further, as there is a lot of potential in combining these different methods and biases in learning, to both further passion and understanding as a learner, but to also …

Species Richness Of Moths In Parks Surrounded By Varying Levels Of ​Urbanization Around Nashville, Tennessee, Maxwell Stone, Allie Bennett

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

Moths can act as indicators of environmental wellness due to their pollution sensitivity and the complexity of biodiversity required to support their life cycles. Urbanization can impact the occurrence of moths in protected green spaces. Higher moth species richness was hypothesized to occur in parks surrounded by more rural areas. Three metropolitan parks were chosen in the Nashville area: downtown, within a suburban neighborhood, and in a rural area. Tree canopy cover and degree of impervious surfaces were assessed for each park and surrounding area using iTreeCanopy. Moths were attracted to a white sheet using a mercury vapor bulb, UV …

Needham’S Girls: A Historical Case Study Of Gender And Mentoring In Entomology, Pat Munday

Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Articles

James G. Needham (1868-1958) was a professor of entomology at Cornell University from 1906 to 1936, and an active emeritus for about ten years thereafter. As a professor, mentored many women graduate students at Cornell, a group that included twenty-nine who took doctorates. As a scientist, he was a member of an extensive network that included many more women entomologists. These women were located throughout the United States and Canada. Some had been his students at Cornell, some were colleagues with whom he did fieldwork, and others were young women who, even though students at colleges other than Cornell, worked …

The Deep Ecology Movement

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

There are two great streams of environmentalism in the latter half of the twentieth century. One stream is reformist, attempting to control some of the worst of the air and water pollution and inefficient land use practices in industrialized nations and to save a few of the remaining pieces of wildlands as "designated wilderness areas." The other stream supports many of the reformist goals but is revolutionary, seeking a new metaphysics, epistemology, cosmology, and environmental ethics of person/planet. This paper is an intellectual archeology of the second of these streams of environmentalism, which I will call deep ecology.

A Foundational Population Genetics Investigation Of The Sexual Systems Of Solanum (Solanaceae) In The Australian Monsoon Tropics Suggests Dioecious Taxa May Benefit From Increased Genetic Admixture Via Obligate Outcrossing, Jason T. Cantley, Ingrid E. Jordon-Thaden, Morgan Roche, Daniel S. Hayes, Stephamie Kate, Christopher T. Martine

Faculty Journal Articles

Solanum section Leptostemonum is an ideal lineage to test the theoretical framework regarding proposed evolutionary benefits of outcrossing sexual systems in comparison to cosexuality. Theoretically, non-cosexual taxa should support more genetic diversity within populations, experience less inbreeding, and have less genetic structure due to a restricted ability to self-fertilize. However, many confounding factors present challenges for a confident inference that inherent differences in sexual systems influence observed genetic patterns among populations. This study provides a foundational baseline of the population genetics of several species of different sexual systems with the aim of generating hypotheses of any factor—including sexual system—that influences …

Evaluation Of Reproductive Phenology, Space Use, And Ecology Of The Eastern Wild Turkey (Meleagris Gallopavo Silvestris) In West-Central Louisiana, Chad Argabright

LSU Master's Theses

Nest site selection is a driving demographic force behind eastern wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) populations. However, previous research was likely not focused on the actual time of nest site selection, considering that nest site selection is likely only able to occur on the day of the first egg being laid. My objective was to determine if selection for any vegetation characteristics was occurring on the first day of laying. I estimated the path taken from the roost to the nest on the first day of egg laying (i.e., laying path) using GPS data collected from 164 unique …

Cell Volume As A Determinant Of Virus-Mediated Population Growth In Ciliates, Jace Miller, John Paul Delong Phd

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Many protists and other small aquatic organisms consume virus particles, a behavior known as virovory. Some species of protists, such as the ciliate Halteria grandinella, can grow and divide using viruses as their sole food source. Other ciliate species have previously been shown to consume large quantities of viral particles, but it is unclear if they are able to support population growth with viruses alone. Because large ciliates have a higher energy demand, we hypothesize that they will be unable to support population growth on a virus-only diet. We fed nine ciliate species a diet of chloroviruses and found …

Differences In Drifting Invertebrate Communities Across Arctic Ecozones And The Influence On Potential Growth Of Grayling (Thymallus Arcticus), Charles Chanyi

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Invertebrate drift is a key process that potentially affects multiple levels of food web organization within stream environments. However, our understanding of the mechanistic drivers of drift in high latitude streams and subsequent bottom-up control that drift may have on fish predators in these environments remains understudied. This project aimed to gain the baseline knowledge of how drift functions across two major high latitude ecozones, the boreal forest and tundra, and how those possible differences in drifting community characteristics may impact drift-feeding Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus). These objectives were accomplished by characterizing stream environments across both ecozones, sampling …

Ecology And Evolution Of Social Information Use, Clare T. M. Doherty

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Sociality is a strategy many animals employ to cope with their environments, enabling them to survive and reproduce more successfully than would otherwise be possible. When navigating their environments and making decisions, social individuals often use information provided by conspecifics (in the form of social cues and signals), thereby increasing the scope and reliability of the information they can gather. However, social information use may be influenced by many factors, including key differences in context across the physical and social environment. My thesis asks and answers a series of questions regarding the trade-offs in social information use across different contexts, …

Effects Of Mass Death On Community Structure And Ecosystem Function, Abby Kimpton Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Death and decomposition are natural processes that are generally well-understood. However, large events of death, such as mass mortality events (MMEs) are increasing in frequency and their impacts on the ecosystem are largely unknown. These events may have both bottom-up effects from increased nutrient input as well as top-down effects from loss of an ecological functional group by the affected population. Different functional MMEs may result in different top-down effects, creating cascading effects. In Chapter 1, I test the hypothesis that scavenger and herbivore simulated MMEs generate novel bottom-up and top-down effects. Results indicate that MMEs have a significant effect …

Regional-Scale Climate-Induced Variation In Ant Physiology And Morphology, Daniel E. Murphy

Biology Theses

The biology of ectotherms such as insects is influenced by ambient thermal conditions. Ants are a ubiquitous and ecologically important group of insects and are well-established as bioindicators of thermal conditions. Ants are sensitive to the thermal extremes that vary with latitude, elevation, and land use, and these thermal gradients influence their spatial and temporal distributions. As a result, ants have evolved physiological and morphological thermal adaptations in response to the thermal environment of their habitats. These adaptations include increased physiological and morphological tolerance for temperature extremes. In Western New York (WNY), temperatures are temporally and spatially heterogeneous, changing with …

Reconstructing The Ecological Relationships Of Late Cretaceous Antarctic Dinosaurs And How Functional Tooth Morphology Influenced These Relationships, Ian D. Broxson

2022 Symposium

The Sandwich Bluff Formation of the James Ross Basin of Antarctica has recently yielded a group of five late Cretaceous dinosaurs that lived contemporaneously with each other, a first for Antarctica. These five dinosaurs include fragmentary remains of two differently sized elasmarian ornithopods, a possible megaraptor, a hadrosaur, and a nodosaur. In this study we will construct a model of the ecological relationships of late Cretaceous Antarctica. Additionally, we will look at what specific factors allowed this group of four herbivores and a carnivore to coexist in a restricted locality and what niches were filled by each species. Methods to …

Ecopsychologists' Vital Importance In The Time Of Climate Crises, Nicole B. Auckerman Psyd

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Ecopsychology is a systems-based philosophy that expands the therapeutic lens to include client interactions with and perceptions of the natural environment as an integral element of well-being or pathology. Ecopsychology, known forward as EP, also looks at the pathology of our culture and what kind of diagnoses lead to practices that put our planet at risk. In recent decades, the field has amassed a substantial amount of empirical evidence supporting its effectiveness but remains largely underutilized. First generation EP suggested a cultural reordering shifting away from consumer culture and reordering our way of life. Second generation posits working within the …

Investigating The Effects Of Climate Change On The Phenology Of Achillea Millefolium, Aquilegia Coerulea, And Penstemon Cyanocaulis, Hannah O’Toole, Kailey Hicks, Lisa Long, Jackson Garske, Anna Sher

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

As the effects of climate change are starting to unearth themselves, the impacts can be observed by tracking the patterns of cyclical natural phenomena also known as phenology, and monitoring how they have changed over time. These cycles are at the crux of making ecosystems viable for their local biodiversity, and understanding the ongoing change allows for further understanding of the ecosystem’s change over time. In this study, we look at the ordinal flowering dates of the Achillea millefolium, Aquilegia coerulea, and Penstemon cyanocaulis over the past century. Our data give insight into how warmer temperatures occurring earlier in …

Responses Of Arthropods To Fire And How Pollinators And Pollination Services Are Affected By Fire Severity, Blyssalyn V. Bieber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fires impact ecosystems globally and due to climate change, there are shifts in fire regimes that impact ecological communities which provide essential ecosystem services. Focusing on arthropods, fire can influence this ubiquitous animal group in various way. We performed a comprehensive meta-analysis evaluating how fires impact differing arthropod functional groups. We found that overall, fire negatively effects community level responses for most functional groups with herbivores as the only exception showing some positive effects of fire. We also studied mixed-severity fires that burned >20 years ago and compared floral visitor communities across fire severities. We implemented a pollinator exclusion experiment …