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Full-Text Articles in Population Biology

Habitat Heterogeneity Concentrates Predators In The Seascape: Linking Intermediate-Scale Estuarine Habitat To Striped Bass Distribution, Cristina Kennedy Jan 2013

Habitat Heterogeneity Concentrates Predators In The Seascape: Linking Intermediate-Scale Estuarine Habitat To Striped Bass Distribution, Cristina Kennedy

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Predators are key components of aquatic ecosystems and innovative approaches to understanding their spatial distribution are imperative for research, effective management, and conservation. Discontinuities, created by abrupt changes between two unlike entities, are irregularly-distributed, intermediate-scale features that can have a disproportionate effect on organismal distribution within the seascape. Here I use the discontinuity concept to relate the distribution of a predator, striped bass (Morone saxatilis), to physical features within Plum Island Estuary (PIE), MA. I mapped the distribution of 50 acoustically-tagged striped bass during four monthly surveys at 40 sites to evaluate if heterogeneity in physical features concentrated …


Conservation Implications Of A Marbled Salamander, Ambystoma Opacum, Metapopulation Model, Ethan B. Plunkett Jan 2009

Conservation Implications Of A Marbled Salamander, Ambystoma Opacum, Metapopulation Model, Ethan B. Plunkett

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Amphibians are in decline globally and a significantly greater percentage of ambystomatid salamander species are in decline relative to other species; habitat loss contributes significantly to this decline. The goals of this thesis is to better understand extinction risk in a marbled salamander (ambystoma opacum) population and how forestry effects extinction risk. To achieve this goal we first estimated an important life history parameter (Chapter 1) then used a metapopulation model to estimate population viability and determine what aspects of their life history put them most at risk (Chapter 2) and finally predicted extinction risk in response to hypothetical forestry …