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Articles 1 - 6 of 6
Full-Text Articles in Population Biology
Investigating The Population Dynamics Of An Avian Apex Predator Across An Urban Gradient, Donna Marain
Investigating The Population Dynamics Of An Avian Apex Predator Across An Urban Gradient, Donna Marain
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Predators are often the focus of conservation efforts. They can be useful sentinel species, umbrella species, and flagship species. Predators can also be the first guild lost when ecosystems are under stress, especially from anthropogenic land-use change. Avian predators (raptors) can be an exception to this trend, filling the role of apex predators across the urban gradient. South Florida contains the Everglades ecosystem and one of the fastest growing human populations in the country. In the current study, I investigated the population dynamics of South Florida’s most abundant hawk: the Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus, RSHA) across the urban …
Understanding, Quantifying, And Reducing Bias In Fisheries-Independent Visual Surveys, James Kilfoil
Understanding, Quantifying, And Reducing Bias In Fisheries-Independent Visual Surveys, James Kilfoil
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Understanding spatiotemporal changes in populations is vital for conservation managers to assess current recovery efforts, determine future conservation priorities, and forms the basis to explore complex ecological questions. In fisheries, these data have traditionally been collected using fisheries-independent surveys that rely on extractive sampling practices (e.g., longlines, gillnets, trawls). However, with the growing availability of low-cost, high-definition cameras, researchers are increasingly using visual surveys as a non-invasive alternative. Camera surveys have a number of advantages including their archivable data, and offer insights into species habitat use and behavior. However, the use of cameras has a number of inherent biases. Understanding, …
Factors Affecting Green Turtle Foraging Ecology Across Multiple Spatial Scales, Elizabeth Rose Whitman
Factors Affecting Green Turtle Foraging Ecology Across Multiple Spatial Scales, Elizabeth Rose Whitman
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The hierarchical levels at which resource selection occurs can have important consequences for individual and population energy budgets and structure the impacts of a forager on its ecosystem. Assessing factors affecting resource selection of large marine herbivores across scales is important because of their potentially large impacts on seagrass community dynamics and historical and current changes in their population sizes and those of their potential predators. I explored the factors (predation risk, resource abundance, quality and identity) affecting resource use of large marine herbivores (green turtles, Chelonia mydas) from the scale of habitat patches to forage species within patches. …
Evolutionary And Population Dynamics Of Crustaceans In The Gulf Of Mexico, Laura Timm
Evolutionary And Population Dynamics Of Crustaceans In The Gulf Of Mexico, Laura Timm
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Evolution occurs and can be conceptualized along a spectrum, bounded on one extreme by the relationships between deep lineages – such as phyla, classes, and orders – and on the other by the molecular dynamics of operational taxonomic units within a species, defined as population genetics. The purpose of this dissertation was to better understand the evolutionary and population dynamics of crustaceans within the Gulf of Mexico. In the second chapter of my dissertation, I provide a guide to best phylogenetic practice while reviewing infraordinal relationships within Decapoda, including the promise held by next-generation sequencing (NGS) approaches such as Anchored …
Investigating Sub-Tropical Community Resistance And Resilience To Climate Disturbance, Ross E. Boucek
Investigating Sub-Tropical Community Resistance And Resilience To Climate Disturbance, Ross E. Boucek
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Changes in global climate will likely increase climate variability. In turn, changes in climate variability have begun to alter the frequency, intensity, and timing of climate disturbances. Continued changes in the climate disturbance regime experienced by natural systems will undoubtedly affect ecological processes at every hierarchical scale. Thus, in order to predict the dynamics of ecological systems in the future, we must develop a more mechanistic understanding of how and in what ways climate disturbance affects natural systems. In South Florida, two climate disturbances recently affected the region, a severe cold spell in 2010, and a drought in 2011. Importantly, …
The Interactive Effects Of Predators, Resources, And Disturbance On Freshwater Snail Populations From The Everglades, Clifton B. Ruehl
The Interactive Effects Of Predators, Resources, And Disturbance On Freshwater Snail Populations From The Everglades, Clifton B. Ruehl
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The origins of population dynamics depend on interplay between abiotic and biotic factors; the relative importance of each changing across space and time. Predation is a central feature of ecological communities that removes individuals (consumption) and alters prey traits (non-consumptive). Resource quality mitigates non-consumptive predator effects by stimulating growth and reproduction. Disturbance resets predator-prey interactions by removing both. I integrate experiments, time-series analysis, and performance trials to examine the relative importance of these on the population dynamics of a snail species by studying a variety of their traits. A review of ninety-three published articles revealed that snail abundance was much …