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Full-Text Articles in Other Life Sciences

Climate Change-Associated Declines In Water Clarity Impair Feeding By Common Loons, Walter H. Piper, Max R. Glines, Kevin C. Rose Mar 2024

Climate Change-Associated Declines In Water Clarity Impair Feeding By Common Loons, Walter H. Piper, Max R. Glines, Kevin C. Rose

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Climate change has myriad impacts on ecosystems, but the mechanisms by which it affects individual species can be difficult to pinpoint. One strategy to discover such mechanisms is to identify a specific ecological factor related to survival or reproduction and determine how that factor is affected by climate. Here we used Landsat imagery to calculate water clarity for 127 lakes in northern Wisconsin from 1995 to 2021 and thus investigate the effect of clarity on the body condition of an aquatic visual predator, the common loon (Gavia immer). In addition, we examined rainfall and temperature as potential predictors …


Responses Of Arthropods To Fire And How Pollinators And Pollination Services Are Affected By Fire Severity, Blyssalyn V. Bieber Jan 2022

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 …


The Role Of Symbiotic Algae In The Acclimatization Of Oculina Arbuscula To Ocean Acidification, Erin M. Arneson Jan 2021

The Role Of Symbiotic Algae In The Acclimatization Of Oculina Arbuscula To Ocean Acidification, Erin M. Arneson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ocean acidification (OA) caused by CO2 emissions is projected to decrease seawater pH to 7.6 by 2100. Scleractinian corals are at risk because excess H+ in seawater binds to carbonate (CO32-), reducing its availability for CaCO3 skeletons. The energy demand for skeletal growth increases as pH decreases because corals must actively purge excess H+ from their seawater sourced calcifying fluid to maintain high calcification rates. In scleractinian corals it is hypothesized that photosynthesis by symbiotic algae is critical to meet this increased energy demand. To test this hypothesis, I conducted laboratory and field …


Coastal Wetland Dynamics Under Sea-Level Rise And Wetland Restoration In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico Using Bayesian Multilevel Models And A Web Tool, Tyler Hardy Aug 2018

Coastal Wetland Dynamics Under Sea-Level Rise And Wetland Restoration In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico Using Bayesian Multilevel Models And A Web Tool, Tyler Hardy

Master's Theses

There is currently a lack of modeling framework to predict how relative sea-level rise (SLR), combined with restoration activities, affects landscapes of coastal wetlands with uncertainties accounted for at the entire northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOM). I developed such a modeling framework – Bayesian multi-level models to study the spatial pattern of wetland loss in the NGOM, driven by relative RSLR, vegetation productivity, tidal range, coastal slope, and wave height – all interacting with river-borne sediment availability, indicated by hydrological regimes. These interactions have not been comprehensively investigated before. I further modified this model to assess the efficacy of restoration …