Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The World’S Deepest Subterranean Community - Krubera-Voronja Cave (Western Caucasus), Alberto Sendra, Ana Sofia P.S. Reboleira

Ana Sofia P.S. Reboleira

Subsurface biota extends over a wide variety of habitats that can be spatially interconnected. The largest communities of this subsurface biota inhabit cavities and are well known mainly in caves where biologists are able to have access. Data about deep subterranean communities and arthropods living under one thousand meters was unknown. An expedition to world’s deepest cave, Krubera-Voronja in Western Caucasus, revealed an interesting subterranean community, living below 2000 meters and represented by more than 12 species of arthropods, including several new species for science. This deep cave biota is composed of troglobionts and also epigean species, that can penetrate …

Trials Of The Urban Ecologist, Rebecca W. Dolan, Tim Carter, Travis J. Ryan, Carmen M. Salsbury, Thomas E. Dolan, Marjorie Hennessy

Rebecca W. Dolan

A group of scientists describe some of the obstacles encountered and insights gained while carrying out ecological research in and around the city of Indianapolis.

Confronting Socially Generated Uncertainty In Adaptive Management, Andrew J. Tyre, Sarah Michaels

Andrew J Tyre

As more and more organizations with responsibility for natural resource management adopt adaptive management as the rubric in which they wish to operate, it becomes increasingly important to consider the sources of uncertainty inherent in their endeavors. Without recognizing that uncertainty originates both in the natural world and in human undertakings, efforts to manage adaptively at the least will prove frustrating and at the worst will prove damaging to the very natural resources that are the management targets. There will be more surprises and those surprises potentially may prove at the very least unwanted and at the worst devastating. We …

Evaluating The Efficacy Of Adaptive Management Approaches: Is There A Formula For Success?, Jamie E. Mcfadden, Tim L. Hiller, Andrew J. Tyre

Andrew J Tyre

Within the field of natural-resources management, the application of adaptive management is appropriate for complex problems high in uncertainty. Adaptive management is becoming an increasingly popular management-decision tool within the scientific community and has developed into two primary schools of thought: the Resilience-Experimentalist School (with high emphasis on stakeholder involvement, resilience, and highly complex models) and the Decision-Theoretic School (which results in relatively simple models through emphasizing stakeholder involvement for identifying management objectives). Because of these differences, adaptive management plans implemented under each of these schools may yield varying levels of success. We evaluated peer-reviewed literature focused on incorporation of …

Nest And Brood Survival And Habitat Selection Of Ring-Necked Pheasants And Greater Prairie-Chickens In Nebraska, Ty Matthews

Andrew J Tyre

Ring-Necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) and Greater Prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus) populations have declined in the Midwest since the 1960’s. Research has suggested decreased nest and brood survival are the major causes of this decline due to the lack of suitable habitat. Habitat degradation has been attributed to the shift to larger crop fields, lower diversity of crops, and more intensive pesticide and herbicide use. A primary goal of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is to mitigate the loss of wildlife habitat. Early research found that CRP increased the amount of suitable nesting and brood rearing cover for both species but …

Integrating Info-Gap Decision Theory With Robust Population Management: A Case Study Using The Mountain Plover, Max Post Van Der Burg, Andrew J. Tyre

Andrew J Tyre

Wildlife managers often make decisions under considerable uncertainty. In the most extreme case, a complete lack of data leads to uncertainty that is unquantifiable.Information-gap decision theory deals with assessing management decisions under extreme uncertainty, but it is not widely used in wildlife management. So too, robust population management methods were developed to deal with uncertainties in multiple-model parameters.However, the two methods have not, as yet, been used in tandem to assess population management decisions. We provide a novel combination of the robust population management approach for matrix models with the information-gap decision theory framework for making conservation decisions under extreme …

Inhibition Of Bacillus Cereus Growth By Bacteriocin Producing Bacillus Subtilis Isolated From Fermented Baobab Seeds (Maari) Is Substrate Dependent, Donatien Kaboré, Dennis S. Nielsen, Hagrétoui Sawadogo-Lingan, Bréhima Diawara, Mamoudou H. Dicko Prof., Mogens Jakobsen, Line Thorsen

Pr. Mamoudou H. DICKO, PhD

Sharing A Vision For Biodiversity Conservation And Agriculture, John Quinn

John E Quinn

No abstract provided.

The “Curse Of Rafinesquina:” Negative Taphonomic Feedback Exerted By Strophomenid Shells On Storm-Buried Lingulids In The Cincinnatian Series (Katian, Ordovician) Of Ohio, Rebecca Freeman, Benjamin Dattilo, Aaron Morse, Michael Blair, Steve Felton, John Pojeta

Benjamin F. Dattilo

Taphonomic feedback is the idea that accumulation of organic remains either enhances the habitat for some organisms (positive taphonomic feedback), and/or degrades the habitat for others (negative taphonomic feedback). Examples of epibionts living on skeletal remains are direct evidence of positive taphonomic feedback. Disruption of infaunal burrowing activities by skeletal fragments is an example of negative taphonomic feedback; direct fossil evidence of this phenomenon has not been documented previously. Infaunal organisms are vulnerable to exhumation or entombment during storms, but organisms that burrow can also re-establish viable life positions subsequently. For example, when modern lingulids re-burrow after exhumation, they first …

Evolutionary Adaptation Of Marine Zooplankton To Global Change, Hans Dam

Hans G. Dam

Predicting the response of the biota to global change remains a formidable endeavor. Zooplankton face challenges related to global warming, ocean acidification, the proliferation of toxic algal blooms, and increasing pollution, eutrophication, and hypoxia. They can respond to these changes by phenotypic plasticity or genetic adaptation. Using the concept of the evolution of reaction norms, I address how adaptive responses can be unequivocally discerned from phenotypic plasticity. To date, relatively few zooplankton studies have been designed for such a purpose. As case studies, I review the evidence for zooplankton adaptation to toxic algal blooms, hypoxia, and climate change. Predicting the …