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Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons™

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2015

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Articles 181 - 210 of 211

Full-Text Articles in Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology

Gray Wolf (Canis Lupus) Dyad Monthly Association Rates By Demographic Group, Shannon M. Barber-Meyer, L. David Mech Jan 2015

Gray Wolf (Canis Lupus) Dyad Monthly Association Rates By Demographic Group, Shannon M. Barber-Meyer, L. David Mech

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Preliminary data from GPS-collared wolves (Canis lupus) in the Superior National Forest of northeastern Minnesota indicated wolves had low association rates with packmates during summer. However, aerial-telemetry locations of very high frequency (VHF)-radioed wolves in this same area showed high associations among packmates during winter. We analyzed aerial-telemetry-location data from VHF-collared wolves in several packs (n=18 dyads) in this same area from 1994-2012 by month, and found lowest association rates occurred during June. While other studies have found low association among wolf packmates during summer, information on differences in association patterns depending on the wolf associates’ demographics is …

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Nutrient Competition Between Algae And Juncus Effusus In The Lake Fayetteville Artificial Spiral Wetland, Toryn Jones, Thad Scott Jan 2015

Nutrient Competition Between Algae And Juncus Effusus In The Lake Fayetteville Artificial Spiral Wetland, Toryn Jones, Thad Scott

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

There is insufficient research focusing exclusively on how nutrient competition between algae and wetland macrophytes affects the growth of these species. This study examined the relationship between nutrient concentrations (N and P), algal concentrations, and the growth of Juncus effusus. Juncus effusus growth in the Lake Fayetteville artificial spiral wetland was monitored over a four month period during the prime growing season. Eighteen plants were taken from the wetland and replanted in 1 of 6 treatments: plant-only, algae-only, combined, plant-only +supplement, algaeonly +supplement, or combined +supplement. The algae and combined environments received an inoculation of algae, and the +supplement treatments …

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The Export Of An Algal Toxin Into Terrestrial Predators Via Emerging Aquatic Insects, Nicholas J. Moy Jan 2015

The Export Of An Algal Toxin Into Terrestrial Predators Via Emerging Aquatic Insects, Nicholas J. Moy

Theses and Dissertations

Algal blooms are directly related to human-caused nutrient enrichment of water bodies. The cyanobacteria Microcystis aeruginosa produces microcystin (MC), a toxin that has been linked with mortalities and illness of many organisms. We show that MC is not constrained by the aquatic-terrestrial ecotone. MC was detected in a primary consumer and emerging aquatic invertebrate (Hexagenia Mayfly), a terrestrial insect and predator of emerging aquatic invertebrates (Tetragnathidae Spider), and a vertebrate consumer (Prothonotary Warbler). Mayfly and spider MC levels varied across the blooming period. MC levels in prothonotary warbler livers varied by age class; nestlings having the highest levels. MC levels …

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Helmintos Parásitos De Fauna Silvestre En Las Costas De Guerrero, Oaxaca Y Chiapas, México, Griselda Pulido-Flores, Scott Monks, Jorge Falcón-Ordaz, Juan Violante-González Jan 2015

Helmintos Parásitos De Fauna Silvestre En Las Costas De Guerrero, Oaxaca Y Chiapas, México, Griselda Pulido-Flores, Scott Monks, Jorge Falcón-Ordaz, Juan Violante-González

Estudios en Biodiversidad

La costa sureste del Pacífico en México es rica en biodiversidad, en parte por la posición en la intersección de las corrientes oceánicas ecuatoriales. Sin embargo, los helmintos son un grupo de organismos que ha sido poco estudiado en la región y los registros están en diversas fuentes de información. El propósito de este trabajo es juntar todos los registros de las diferentes especies de hemintos en uno solo. Los registros publicados de helmintos parásitos de vertebrados de la zona incluyen 192 especies de Digenea, Monogenea, Cestoda, Acanthocephala, Nematoda e Hirudinea. Los Digenea son los mejor representados con 34 familias …

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Revisión Bibliográfica De Algunos Términos Ecológicos Usados En Parasitología, Y Su Aplicación En Estudios De Caso, Christian Elizbeth Bautista-Hernández, Scott Monks, Griselda Pulido-Flores, Amado Erick Rodríguez-Ibarra Jan 2015

Revisión Bibliográfica De Algunos Términos Ecológicos Usados En Parasitología, Y Su Aplicación En Estudios De Caso, Christian Elizbeth Bautista-Hernández, Scott Monks, Griselda Pulido-Flores, Amado Erick Rodríguez-Ibarra

Estudios en Biodiversidad

Se realizó una revisión bibliográfica de los términos ecológicos usados en parasitología, de acuerdo con Margolis et al. (1982), Esch et al. (1990), Bush et al. (1997), Bush et al. (2001) y Zander, (2001), que hasta 1982 era un conflicto en parasitología, ya que a que no existían conceptos establecidos para esta área del conocimiento, debido a que esta disciplina se enfocaba principalmente en investigaciones médicas. Aunado a esto, se incurría en conflictos con los conceptos ecológicos como hábitat, sitio, localidad entre otros de igual valor. Con base en lo anterior Margolis et al. (1982) propusieron el desarrollo de nuevos …

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Revisión Del Uso De Céstodos Como Indicadores De Contaminación Por Metales Pesados En Mamíferos De Medios Terrestres, Jorge Falcón-Ordaz, Scott Monks, Griselda Pulido-Flores Jan 2015

Revisión Del Uso De Céstodos Como Indicadores De Contaminación Por Metales Pesados En Mamíferos De Medios Terrestres, Jorge Falcón-Ordaz, Scott Monks, Griselda Pulido-Flores

Estudios en Biodiversidad

En México son pocos los estudios realizados con invertebrados para conocer la concentración de metales pesados en el ambiente, los primeros trabajos fueron realizados con organismos acuáticos. Sin embargo, la necesidad de conocer la contaminación ambiental en medios terrestres ha llevado a los investigadores a utilizar otras herramientas, por ejemplo los helmintos, que se utilizan como bioindicadores de contaminación ambiental basados en su capacidad de absorción, y concentración de contaminantes del medio en su cuerpo. El uso de bioindicadores es ventajoso y económico comparado con el análisis directo de contaminantes por que solo las fracciones que están biológicamente disponibles son …

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Nuevos Registros Y Redescripción De Rhabdochona Xiphophori Caspeta-Mandujano, Moravec Y Salgado- Maldonado, 2001 (Nematoda: Rhabdochonidae) En El Estado De Hidalgo, México, Jorge Falcón-Ordaz, Scott Monks, Griselda Pulido-Flores, Christian Elizbeth Bautista-Hernández, Sarahi Hernández-Hernández Jan 2015

Nuevos Registros Y Redescripción De Rhabdochona Xiphophori Caspeta-Mandujano, Moravec Y Salgado- Maldonado, 2001 (Nematoda: Rhabdochonidae) En El Estado De Hidalgo, México, Jorge Falcón-Ordaz, Scott Monks, Griselda Pulido-Flores, Christian Elizbeth Bautista-Hernández, Sarahi Hernández-Hernández

Estudios en Biodiversidad

Teniendo en cuenta la diversidad de los ecosistemas acuáticos en México y la infinita riqueza de especies de peces en el país, la lista actual de nemátodos parásitos de peces de agua dulce en México está incompleta. Hasta la fecha en México el género Rhabdochona se encuentra registrado como parásito en una amplia gama de familias de peces de agua dulce. El objetivo del presente trabajo es redescribir ejemplares de Rhabdochona xiphophori parásita de Xiphophorus malinche colectados de dos localidades del estado de Hidalgo y compararlos morfológicamente.

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Importancia De Las Aves Ictiófagas Como Hospederos Finales De Helmintos, En Dos Lagunas Costeras Del Estado De Guerrero, México, Juan Violante-González, Griselda Pulido-Flores, Scott Monks, Agustín A. Rojas-Herrera, Miguel A. Melo-García, Sergio García-Ibáñez, Edgar León Esparza-Ibarra, Edvino Larumbe-Morán, Jonatan Carbajal-Violante Jan 2015

Importancia De Las Aves Ictiófagas Como Hospederos Finales De Helmintos, En Dos Lagunas Costeras Del Estado De Guerrero, México, Juan Violante-González, Griselda Pulido-Flores, Scott Monks, Agustín A. Rojas-Herrera, Miguel A. Melo-García, Sergio García-Ibáñez, Edgar León Esparza-Ibarra, Edvino Larumbe-Morán, Jonatan Carbajal-Violante

Estudios en Biodiversidad

Se examinó la composición y riqueza de comunidades de helmintos en tres especies de aves ictiófagas: Ardea alba, Nyctanassa violacea y Phalacrocorax brasilianus en dos lagunas costeras del estado de Guerrero, México. La helmintofauna estuvo constituida por 23 especies: 17 digéneos, un acantocéfalo, dos céstodos y tres nemátodos. Cinco especies (Ascocotyle longa, Mehrastomum minutum, Riberoia ondatrae, Southwellina hispida y Contracaecum multipapillatum) co-ocurrieron en las tres especies de aves de ambas lagunas. Los niveles de infección de un 50% de las especies identificadas, variaron significativamente entre las especies de aves y lagunas. A nivel componente, la riqueza de especies varió significativamente …

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Evaluación De Las Infracomunidades De Tres Especies De Peces En Dos Localidades De La Huasteca Hidalguense, Christian Elizbeth Bautista-Hernández, Scott Monks, Griselda Pulido-Flores Jan 2015

Evaluación De Las Infracomunidades De Tres Especies De Peces En Dos Localidades De La Huasteca Hidalguense, Christian Elizbeth Bautista-Hernández, Scott Monks, Griselda Pulido-Flores

Estudios en Biodiversidad

Uno de los problemas más severos y menos controlados en México es el gran número de especies introducidas en las cuencas del país, hecho que pone en peligro la existencia de muchas de las especies endémicas. Además, las especies introducidas pueden transportar sus parásitos, que con frecuencia afectan a las poblaciones de especies endémicas. Anteriormente se realizó un estudio de las comunidades de parásitos de tres especies de peces, dos endémicas y una exótica (Xiphophorus birchmanni, Pseudoxiphophorus bimaculata y Amatitlania nigrofasciata). En ese trabajo se realizó el análisis de éstas comunidades evaluándolas a nivel infracomunidad, además se calculó la caracterización …

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Parasitofauna De Peces De Lagunas Costeras Del Estado De Guerrero, México, Juan Violante-González, Griselda Pulido-Flores, Scott Monks, Agustín A. Rojas-Herrera, Jaime Salvador Gil-Guerrero, Sergio García-Ibáñez, Jonatan Carbajal-Violante Jan 2015

Parasitofauna De Peces De Lagunas Costeras Del Estado De Guerrero, México, Juan Violante-González, Griselda Pulido-Flores, Scott Monks, Agustín A. Rojas-Herrera, Jaime Salvador Gil-Guerrero, Sergio García-Ibáñez, Jonatan Carbajal-Violante

Estudios en Biodiversidad

No obstante que los parásitos representan un porcentaje muy importante de la biodiversidad global a nivel mundial, en muchas ocasiones son excluidos de estudios con este enfoque, debido principalmente a que han sido considerados durante muchos años, como simples agentes causantes de enfermedad. A partir de los datos obtenidos de varios estudios parasitológicos de peces y aves, efectuados en algunas lagunas costeras del estado de Guerrero a lo largo de varios años, se presenta un análisis global de la riqueza de la parasitofauna de peces, en estos altamente productivos y complejos sistemas acuáticos. La parasitofauna total estuvo constituida por 66 …

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Expanding Eco-Visualization: Sculpting Corn Production, Jennifer E. Figg Jan 2015

Expanding Eco-Visualization: Sculpting Corn Production, Jennifer E. Figg

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation expands upon the definition of eco-visualization artwork. EV was originally defined in 2006 by Tiffany Holmes as a way to display the real time consumption statistics of key environmental resources for the goal of promoting ecological literacy. I assert that the final forms of EV artworks are not necessarily dependent on technology, and can differ in terms of media used, in that they can be sculptural, video-based, or static two-dimensional forms that communicate interpreted environmental information. There are two main categories of EV: one that is predominantly screen-based and another that employs a variety of modes of representation …

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The Functional Role Of Leaf Nutrients In An Old-Field Successional Community, Kirstin I. Duffin Jan 2015

The Functional Role Of Leaf Nutrients In An Old-Field Successional Community, Kirstin I. Duffin

Masters Theses

In functional ecology, traits that capture aspects of plant performance are used to understand how organisms interact with their environment. Leaf nutrients are an example of a functional trait that directly links to plant metabolic processes and therefore may describe plant assemblage dynamics. Multivariate leaf nutrient analyses may be used with other functional traits to understand ecological strategies because they are a direct measure of leaf metabolic processes and can describe nuances in plant allocation patterns. In this thesis, I explored (1) whether a suite of leaf nutrients (carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and magnesium) was related to plant growth …

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Movement Of Bigmouth Sleeper, Gobiomorus Dormitor, In The Río Cañas, Puerto Rico, Revealed By Radio Telemetry, And A Discussion Of The Species’ Amphidromous Characterization, Steve E. Lochmann, Christine Adelsberger, J. Wesley Neal Jan 2015

Movement Of Bigmouth Sleeper, Gobiomorus Dormitor, In The Río Cañas, Puerto Rico, Revealed By Radio Telemetry, And A Discussion Of The Species’ Amphidromous Characterization, Steve E. Lochmann, Christine Adelsberger, J. Wesley Neal

Gulf and Caribbean Research

Bigmouth Sleeper, Gobiomorus dormitor, are tropical fish native to rivers of Puerto Rico. They are popular sport fish targeted by local anglers. They are considered as diadromous, but this characterization is controversial. The displacement of Bigmouth Sleepers in the Río Cañas, Puerto Rico, was examined using radio telemetry. Twenty fish were radio-tagged and monitored from January to November 2008. Fish were in the Río Cañas 69%, 62%, and 59% of the time before (January-May), during (June-August), and after (September-November) the spawning season, respectively. Average detected linear home range (within the river) for all tracking periods was 2.3 km, but …

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Horseshoe Crab Research In Urban Estuaries: Challenges And Opportunities, Jennifer Mattei, Mark L. Botton, Mark Beekey, Christina P. ColóN Jan 2015

Horseshoe Crab Research In Urban Estuaries: Challenges And Opportunities, Jennifer Mattei, Mark L. Botton, Mark Beekey, Christina P. ColóN

Biology Faculty Publications

Horseshoe crabs rely on estuaries for food resources, places to spawn and for larvae and juveniles to develop and grow. Many of these estuaries are becoming increasingly urbanized and dominated by human activity. An urban estuary is characterized by armored shorelines, high nutrient loads, large fluctuations in algal and bacteria populations, increased levels of pollutants like heavy metals and pesticides, and seasonally low oxygen levels and pH. While urban estuaries are challenging for horseshoe crab survival and to researchers trying to study them, there are also opportunities for involving the public in research and increasing public awareness of the importance …

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The Mismanagement Of Limulus Polyphemus In Long Island Sound, U.S.A.: What Are The Characteristics Of A Population In Decline?, Mark Beekey, Jennifer Mattei Jan 2015

The Mismanagement Of Limulus Polyphemus In Long Island Sound, U.S.A.: What Are The Characteristics Of A Population In Decline?, Mark Beekey, Jennifer Mattei

Biology Faculty Publications

Over the past 15 years, horseshoe crabs in Connecticut have gone from being considered a nuisance species to a species of Greatest Conservation Need in 2015. This has happened through first, its discovery as an economically important species, second through research of its ecological role in coastal estuaries, and third, through education of the public concerning its role in the environment and their own health. To manage horseshoe crab populations successfully requires long term monitoring, research and education. The use of annual or biannual trawl data trends to assess the success of management decisions is limited due to the high …

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Physical And Biological Constraints On The Abundance Of Cyanobacteria In The James River Estuary, Brendan C. Trache Jan 2015

Physical And Biological Constraints On The Abundance Of Cyanobacteria In The James River Estuary, Brendan C. Trache

Theses and Dissertations

The tidal-fresh James River experiences recurring blooms of toxin-producing cyanobacteria, including Microcystis aeruginosa. However, cyanobacteria cell densities in the James are relatively low. Our purpose was to identify key factors suppressing cyanobacteria growth in the face of eutrophication. A mesocosm experiment was designed to test the effects of light, mixing and grazing on cyanobacteria abundance, with nutrients held constant. We predicted that toxic cyanobacteria would be most abundant under stagnant conditions, with enhanced light, with no bivalve grazers present. Abundances of indicator gene copies and phytoplankton counts supported this hypothesis. However, chlorophyll-a, phycocyanin, and the toxin microcystin were all …

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Scales Of Resilience: Community Stability, Population Dynamics, And Molecular Ecology Of Brook Trout In A Riverscape After A Large Flood, Erin V. Rodgers Jan 2015

Scales Of Resilience: Community Stability, Population Dynamics, And Molecular Ecology Of Brook Trout In A Riverscape After A Large Flood, Erin V. Rodgers

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Climate change in the northeastern United States currently and in future decadal predictions is characterized by warmer average temperatures and more frequent and intense storm events. Many aquatic organisms that thrive below a certain temperature threshold, such as brook trout, are being pushed towards their upper thermal limits, ultimately lowering their probability of survival and resilience to disturbance. In late-August and early-September 2011, Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee created an extended flood in the Delaware Water Gap region of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well as much of the northeast. This dissertation examines the effects of this flood on …

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Coarse Woody Debris And The Carbon Balance Of A Moderately Disturbed Forest, Amy V. Schmid Jan 2015

Coarse Woody Debris And The Carbon Balance Of A Moderately Disturbed Forest, Amy V. Schmid

Theses and Dissertations

Landscapes are comprised of multiple ecosystems shaped by disturbances varying in severity and source. Moderate disturbance from weather, pathogens, insects, and age-related senescence, in contrast to severe disturbances that fell trees, may increase standing woody debris and alter the contribution of coarse woody debris (CWD) to total ecosystem respiration (RE). However, woody debris dynamics are rarely examined following moderate disturbances that substantially increase standing dead wood stocks. We used an experimental manipulation of moderate disturbance in an upper Great Lakes forest to: 1) examine decadal changes in CWD stocks through a moderate disturbance; 2) quantify in situ CWD …

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The Problem Of Low Agreement Among Automated Identification Programs For Acoustical Surveys Of Bats, Cliff Lemen, Patricia W. Freeman, Jeremy A. White, Brett R. Andersen Jan 2015

The Problem Of Low Agreement Among Automated Identification Programs For Acoustical Surveys Of Bats, Cliff Lemen, Patricia W. Freeman, Jeremy A. White, Brett R. Andersen

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

We compared four programs designed to identify species of bats from their echolocation calls (Bat Call ID, EchoClass, Kaleidoscope Pro, and SonoBat) using field data collected in Nebraska, USA (29,782 files). Although we did not know the true identity of these bats, we could still compare the pairwise agreement between software packages when identifying the same call sequences. If accuracy is high in these software packages, there should be high agreement in identification. Agreement in identification by species averaged approximately 40% and varied by software package, species, and data set. Our results are not consistent with the high accuracy often …

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The Role Of Citizens In Detecting And Responding To A Rapid Marine Invasion, Steven B. Scyphers, Sean P. Powers, J. Lad Akins, J. Marcus Drymon, Charles W. Martin, Zeb H. Schobernd, Pamela J. Schofield, Robert L. Shipp, Theodore S. Switzer Jan 2015

The Role Of Citizens In Detecting And Responding To A Rapid Marine Invasion, Steven B. Scyphers, Sean P. Powers, J. Lad Akins, J. Marcus Drymon, Charles W. Martin, Zeb H. Schobernd, Pamela J. Schofield, Robert L. Shipp, Theodore S. Switzer

University Faculty and Staff Publications

Documenting and responding to species invasions requires innovative strategies that account for ecological and societal complexities. We used the recent expansion of Indo-Pacific lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles) throughout northern Gulf of Mexico coastal waters to evaluate the role of stakeholders in documenting and responding to a rapid marine invasion. We coupled an online survey of spearfishers and citizen science monitoring programs with traditional fishery-independent data sources and found that citizen observations documented lionfish 1–2 years earlier and more frequently than traditional reef fish monitoring programs. Citizen observations first documented lionfish in 2010 followed by rapid expansion and proliferation in …

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Yellowstone Wolf (Canis Lupus) Density Predicted By Elk (Cervus Elaphus) Biomass, L. David Mech, Shannon M. Barber-Meyer Jan 2015

Yellowstone Wolf (Canis Lupus) Density Predicted By Elk (Cervus Elaphus) Biomass, L. David Mech, Shannon M. Barber-Meyer

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

The Northern Range (NR) of Yellowstone National Park (YNP) hosts a higher prey biomass density in the form of elk (Cervus elaphus L., 1758) than any other system of gray wolves (Canis lupus L., 1758) and prey reported. Therefore, it is important to determine whether that wolf–prey system fits a long-standing model relating wolf density to prey biomass. Using data from 2005 to 2012 after elk population fluctuations dampened 10 years subsequent to wolf reintroduction, we found that NR prey biomass predicted wolf density. This finding and the trajectory of the regression extend the validity of the model …

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Advancing Understanding Of The Role Of Belowground Processes In Terrestrial Carbon Sinks Through Ground-Penetrating Radar: Final Report (De-Sc0008099), Frank P. Day Jan 2015

Advancing Understanding Of The Role Of Belowground Processes In Terrestrial Carbon Sinks Through Ground-Penetrating Radar: Final Report (De-Sc0008099), Frank P. Day

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Coarse roots play a significant role in belowground carbon cycling and will likely play an increasingly crucial role in belowground carbon sequestration as atmospheric CO2 levels continue to rise, yet they are one of the most difficult ecosystem parameters to quantify. Despite promising results with ground-penetrating radar (GPR) as a nondestructive method of quantifying biomass of coarse roots, this application of GPR is in its infancy and neither the complete potential nor limitations of the technology have been fully evaluated. The primary goals and questions of this study fell into four groups: (1) GPR methods: Can GPR detect change …

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A Gis Assessment Of Ecoregion Representation In Chile's Existing And Proposed Integrated Network Of Protected Areas, Jessica Schutz Jan 2015

A Gis Assessment Of Ecoregion Representation In Chile's Existing And Proposed Integrated Network Of Protected Areas, Jessica Schutz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Chile's state designated protected areas are reported to show representation bias and to be unable to meet conservation goals. Private protected areas are considered an important tool to resolve these issues, which has led to support for increasing the role of private protected areas in Chile and creating an integrated public-private protected area network. But the validity of the capacity of private protected areas to fix Chile's state protected area network bias, and the advantage of creating an integrated protected area network, have not been assessed. This study uses the most recent data on Chile's state, private, and international protected …

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Effects Of Prescribed Fire On Upland Plant Biodiversity And Abundance In Northeast Florida, Peter D. Maholland Jan 2015

Effects Of Prescribed Fire On Upland Plant Biodiversity And Abundance In Northeast Florida, Peter D. Maholland

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Terrestrial ecosystems in the southeastern United States have evolved with fire as a common disturbance and as a result many natural communities require the presence of fire to persist over time. Human development precludes natural fires from occurring within these communities; however, prescribed fire is considered to be a critical tool in the effort to restore fire-dependent ecosystems after decades of fire exclusion. Direct effects of fire on individual floral and faunal species as well as benefits to biodiversity at the landscape (gamma diversity) level have largely been supported in previous research. However, information on the effects of natural and …

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Habitat Value Of Restored Intertidal Shoreline For Fish And Macrobenthic Communities In Northeast Florida, Shannon K. Dunnigan Jan 2015

Habitat Value Of Restored Intertidal Shoreline For Fish And Macrobenthic Communities In Northeast Florida, Shannon K. Dunnigan

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Oyster reefs are declining worldwide, as well as the economic and ecological value of oysters to their respective systems. Numerous restoration efforts have been undertaken in hopes of re-establishing these shellfish populations. This study evaluated a restoration project within the Guana Tolomato Matanzas estuary in northeast Florida, U.S.A., to investigate community structure as well as seasonal patterns in species abundance and diversity of juvenile fish and benthic macrofauna within restored and unrestored intertidal habitats along the Guana Peninsula. The first objective was to determine whether the artificially created reefs provided similar quantity and diversity of benthic macrofauna as adjacent unrestored …

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Plant Functional Traits Of Dominant Native And Invasive Species In Mediterranean-Climate Ecosystems, Jennifer L. Funk, Rachel J. Standish, William D. Stock, Fernando Valladares Jan 2015

Plant Functional Traits Of Dominant Native And Invasive Species In Mediterranean-Climate Ecosystems, Jennifer L. Funk, Rachel J. Standish, William D. Stock, Fernando Valladares

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The idea that dominant invasive plant species outperform neighboring native species through higher rates of carbon assimilation and growth is supported by several analyses of global datasets. However, theory suggests that native and invasive species occurring in low-resource environments will be functionally similar, as environmental factors restrict the range of observed physiological and morphological trait values. We measured resource-use traits in native and invasive plant species across eight diverse vegetation communities distributed throughout the five Mediterranean-climate regions, which are drought-prone and increasingly threatened by human activities including the introduction of exotic species. Traits differed strongly across the five regions. In …

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Community Perturbation Associated With New Zealand Mudsnail (Potamapyrgus Antipodarum) Invasion: Discrepancies In Temporal And Spatial Assessment, Eric H. Richins Jan 2015

Community Perturbation Associated With New Zealand Mudsnail (Potamapyrgus Antipodarum) Invasion: Discrepancies In Temporal And Spatial Assessment, Eric H. Richins

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Invasive species have the potential to alter the ecosystems within which they establish as well as adjacent but uninvaded ecosystems by altering the flow of nutrients or biota across system boundaries. New Zealand mudsnails (Potamopyrgus antipodarum; NZMS) are often very abundant where they invade, sequestering the majority of stream primary production. This sequestering of production may reduce aquatic insect production, subsequent insect emergence and subsidies to riparian ecosystems. Tetragnathid spiders, an insectivorous riparian specialist, are dependent on the emergence of aquatic insects and are typical indicators of aquatic insect subsidies to riparian zones. In addition, NZMS invasions can result …

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Cows And Plows: Science-Based Conservation For Grassland Songbirds In Agricultural Landscapes, Marisa K. Lipsey Jan 2015

Cows And Plows: Science-Based Conservation For Grassland Songbirds In Agricultural Landscapes, Marisa K. Lipsey

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Temperate grasslands are among earth’s most imperiled ecosystems. In North America, steep declines of endemic songbird populations indicate that grassland loss and degradation may be approaching critical levels. Grasslands are agricultural landscapes largely (~85%) under private ownership with little formal protection status. Remaining bird populations depend on grazing lands that have not been converted to cropland. We combine regional data from a hotspot for grassland bird diversity (northeast Montana, USA; 26,500-km2) with continental data spanning the northern Great Plains (1,000,000-km2) to evaluate how land use and management influence bird distribution and abundance. Regionally, habitat used by seven grassland specialists spanned …

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Abundance, Density, And Opinions About Columbian Black-Tailed Deer, Whidbey Island, Washington, Robert P. Wingard Jan 2015

Abundance, Density, And Opinions About Columbian Black-Tailed Deer, Whidbey Island, Washington, Robert P. Wingard

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Obtaining reliable knowledge is the first step towards properly managing wildlife species. Columbian black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) on Whidbey Island, Washington have not been the subject of study, and little is known about the population, or the opinion of resident’s of Whidbey Island towards the deer population. However, wildlife managers suggest deer on the island may be overabundant or over social carrying capacity. Given the lack of empirical knowledge about the deer population or human opinions towards deer on Whidbey Island, I designed research to determine the abundance and density of Columbian black-tailed deer on Whidbey Island, …

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Decadal Scale Responses Of Soil And Ecosystem Processes To Forest Restoration In Rocky Mountain Conifer Forests, Peter Ganzlin Jan 2015

Decadal Scale Responses Of Soil And Ecosystem Processes To Forest Restoration In Rocky Mountain Conifer Forests, Peter Ganzlin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Decades of fire suppression have left much of the forest in the intermountain western United States exceedingly dense, and forest restoration techniques – including thinning and prescribed fire – are increasingly being used in an attempt to mitigate the potentially disastrous effects of severe wildfire, to enhance tree growth and regeneration, and to stimulate soil nutrient cycling. While many of the short-term effects of forest restoration have been established, the long-term effects on soil biogeochemical and ecosystem processes are largely unknown. In this thesis I present two manuscripts documenting and synthesizing these long-term impacts. The first chapter focuses on the …

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