Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Mathematics Of Population-Genetics Model For Assessing The Impacts Of Insecticide Resistance And Temperature On Population Abundance Of Malaria Mosquitoes, Jemal Mohammed-Awel

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Determining The Impact Of Post-Harvest Water Management On Chironomid Abundance, Agrochemical Biomass And Potential Trophic Biomagnification, Mason Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

Agriculture has diminished shorebirds’ natural habitat in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Remaining natural stopover sites are supplemented with agricultural fields during the fall and winter. This study evaluates the impact of 4 different post-harvest water management strategies on shorebird food abundance and potential agrochemical biomagnification. Chironomid samples estimated abundance, biomass, and chironomid agrochemical concentration in each field. A risk assessment of agrochemical biomagnification to shorebirds was made across all treatments. Of treatments represented on all study sites, winter treatment had greatest chironomid abundance and biomass. Models indicated that days since flood initiation, start date, and temperature are significant predictors of …

The Bellarmine Bee Bed: Organizing A Native Plant Garden Using Feedback From The Local Community, Kate Moran

Undergraduate Theses

Animal pollinators are the cornerstone of healthy ecosystems. Their survival is essential for the persistence of entire food chains: from the flowers they cross-pollinate directly, to the animals who depend on those plants for nutrition. The establishment of pollinator gardens—particularly ones that consist of native plants—is an effective way to enhance their biodiversity, abundance, and well-being.

The main goal of this thesis is to construct a pollinator garden that maximizes the benefits for animal pollinators using feedback from local gardeners. A survey was used to gather information about the popularity and preferences of 40 flowering plants, and after analyzing the …

Assessing Functional Biodiversity For The Future Of Plants, Planet, And People, Ali Loker

Doctoral Documents from Doctor of Plant Health Program

Biodiversity plays a critical role in supporting life in global ecosystems and its links to ecosystem services and sustainability are recognized by scientific and non-scientific communities. Growing awareness of the importance of biodiversity is accelerated by discussions of its loss, and how to design interventions to conserve and mitigate a biodiversity crisis. Stakeholders are funding and implementing assessment strategies at various scales to help direct conservation efforts. There is also growing interest in measuring and communicating biodiversity outcomes.

Functional biodiversity characterizes the multiplicity of life forms into groups based on their diverse contributions to natural and agro-ecosystems. Assessing functional biodiversity …

Rainbow Beach Sediment Grain Size Analysis, Northampton, Massachusetts, Brian Yellen

Data and Datasets

This dataset was prepared by Brian Yellen, a research assistant professor in the Department of Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Dr. Yellen worked in conjunction with Melissa Grader of the USFWS and colleagues to conduct the associated field sampling.

This report provides information related to the substrate grain size at surveyed locations on Rainbow Beach on the Connecticut River in Northampton, MA (42.322125, -72.584928). This location is a known breeding site of the endangered puritan tiger beetle (PTB), Ellipsoptera puritana.

Evaluating Benthic Macroinvertebrate Populations In Response To Scouring Events In The Trinity River, Ca, Liam Hay, Michael W. O'Neil, Chloe Pieper-Wasem

Environmental Science & Management Senior Capstones

River systems across California have been impacted by appurtenant structures such as dams and diversions. These structures have had an adverse impact on Benthic invertebrate (BMI) communities by regulating river systems and changing the natural hydraulic pulses that follow seasonal precipitation. Benthic invertebrates are a critical food resource for salmonids and serve as an indicator of ecosystem health. Our study was interested in seeing the effects of scouring events on BMI in the Trinity River of Trinity County, C.A. Following a large precipitation event that occurred in the region in December 2022, an influx of water entered the river through …

Photonic Monitoring Of Atmospheric Fauna, Adrien P. Genoud

Dissertations

Insects play a quintessential role in the Earth’s ecosystems and their recent decline in abundance and diversity is alarming. Monitoring their population is paramount to understand the causes of their decline, as well as to guide and evaluate the efficiency of conservation policies. Monitoring populations of flying insects is generally done using physical traps, but this method requires long and expensive laboratory analysis where each insect must be identified by qualified personnel. Lack of reliable data on insect populations is now considered a significant issue in the field of entomology, often referred to as a “data crisis” in the field. …

Trophish: Building A Global Database Of Freshwater Trophic Interactions, Jacob M. Ridgway

Honors Thesis

Freshwater management and research frequently use the trophic data of freshwater fishes. Despite this fact, it is difficult to perform a simple search of dietary information for any one fish species. FishBase represents, to our knowledge, the largest compilation of freshwater dietary information to date. However, it excludes a large portion of the ecological literature due to its development taking place prior to the creation of most modern scientific search engines. Our project (TroPhish) is building upon FishBase by digitizing approximately 130 years of data from the fish predation literature. Data from the primary and grey (e.g. theses, dissertations, reports) …

Regenerative Agriculture Effects On Invertebrate And Bird Communities And Insect-Provided Ecosystem Services, Alex Michels

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Conventional agricultural practices can have unintended consequences on the environment and wildlife. Insects and birds are declining at rapid rates around the world, and the current conventional agricultural paradigm is a major driver through habitat loss and the intensification of production. Invertebrates in agroecosystems provide services to both farmers and the rest of society. Regenerative systems may promote the functioning of an agroecosystem by influencing invertebrate abundance, diversity, and ecosystem services and mitigate bird and insect declines through conservation practices that increase soil health, reduce disturbances, and increase biological diversity. Here I address knowledge gaps of the effects of regenerative …

Artificial Intelligence System For Automatic Imaging, Quantification, And Identification Of Arthropods In Leaf Litter And Pitfall Samples, Pierce Helton, Khoa Luu, Ashley Dowling

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

It is well known that arthropods are the most diverse and abundant eukaryotic organisms on the planet. Museum and research collections have huge insect accumulations from expeditions conducted over history that contain specimens of both temporal and spatial value, including hundreds of thousands of species. This biodiversity data is inaccessible to the research community, resulting in a vast amount of “dark data”. The primary objective of this study is to develop an artificial intelligence-driven system for specimen identification that greatly minimizes the time and expertise required to identify specimens in atypical environments. Successful development will have profound impacts on both …

Gene Silencing Provides Insights Into Bark Beetle Biology And Creates Potential For Broad Scale Forest Protection, Beth R. Kyre

Theses and Dissertations--Entomology

Dendroctonus bark beetles are among the most economically and ecologically significant forest pests in North America and play a critical role in the overall health of conifer forest ecosystems. Dendroctonus bark beetles influence ecosystem benefits and biodiversity and drive forest succession, and adversely affect timber production, forest management, and recreation. As temperatures surge and climatic fluctuations become more extreme, catastrophic bark beetle outbreaks are increasing in frequency, escalating pressures on highly vulnerable conifer forests already compromised by heat and drought. Eruptive outbreaks of Dendroctonus beetles are largely unhindered by traditional silvicultural management; these practices further disrupt forest ecosystem services, including …

Decomposition And Macroinvertebrate Shredder Colonization Of Autumnal Shed Sycamore Leaves In Mining-Contaminated Streams, Leslie Marie Hatch

MSU Graduate Theses

Leaf decomposition in streams is an important ecological function facilitated by bacteria, fungi, and macroinvertebrates. Metal contamination can decrease leaf decomposition rates and reduce macroinvertebrate abundance and diversity. In the current study, I focused on mining-contamination in well-buffered streams in two different Missouri mining districts with varying extents of mining contamination, Big River and Pierson Creek. I measured decomposition rates of sycamore leaves, and abundance and diversity of macroinvertebrate shredders in leaf pack experiments with a full-factorial design to determine the effects of metal contamination of leaves and stream substrates. Comparisons were made between leaf packs upstream and downstream of …

American Burying Beetle, Plant Richness, And Soil Property Responses To Collapse Of Juniperus Virginiana Woodlands With Fire, Alison Ludwig

Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research in Agronomy and Horticulture

Grasslands are declining in the Great Plains due to land use changes, woody plant encroachment, and loss of historic fire cycles. Prescribed burn associations have utilized prescribed fire to collapse invading woodlands and allow the restoration of grasslands. This fire is considered “extreme” because it is capable of changing the structure and function of an ecosystem. Our study site is the Loess Canyons Experimental Landscape, a long-term, ecoregion-scale experiment to apply prescribed fire across the region to restore grasslands. The Nebraska Natural Legacy Project established the Loess Canyons ecoregion as a Biologically-Unique Landscape in 2005 with the state’s wildlife action …

Biocontrol Of The Emerald Ash Borer: An Adapted Nicholson-Bailey Model, Michael Kerckhove, Shuheng Chen

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Regional Expansion And Evaluation Of Potential Chemical Control For Invasive Apple Snails (Pomacea Maculata) In Southwest Louisiana, Julian M. Lucero

LSU Master's Theses

The integration of monitoring and chemical control is an efficient strategy for managing invasive apple snails, Pomacea maculata, in the rice (Oryza sativa L.) and crawfish systems of southwest Louisiana. However, their current distribution, expansion rates, and susceptibility to chemical control methods in this area are not well known. This study evaluated the expansion of P. maculata in southwest Louisiana and assessed potential chemical control for P. maculata among toxicity assays using various application rates. The effects of potential chemical control were also assessed on a non-target species, the red swamp crawfish (Procambarus clarkii). P. maculata …

Getting Out Of A Sticky Situation: Differential Escape Of Spotted Lanternfly From Two Commonly-Used Trapping Techniques, Jennifer L. Chandler

Sustainability Research & Practice Seminar Presentations

Professor Jen Chandler, Biology - Getting out of a Sticky Situation: Differential Escape of Spotted Lanternfly from Two Commonly-Used Trapping Techniques

Wildflower Pollen Quality In Roadside Habitats, With Particular Emphasis On Hedera Helix, Aoife Mcmullin, Paul Hamilton

SURE_J: Science Undergraduate Research Journal

The quality of air is of more significance today than ever before. Human population growth and pollutants emitted through fossil fuel consumption put pressures on air quality. It is widely acknowledged that atmospheric pollutants negatively impact human health; the same is also true for the health of wildlife and plants exposed to these pollutants (Brunekreef & Holgate, 2002; EEA, 2019; Schiavoni, et al., 2017). Pollen and seed formation of flowering plants have been affected when grown in areas of poor air quality (Azzazy, 2016; Sénéchal, et al., 2015). The purpose of this research was to assess pollen of …

Barcoding Us Ants: Ozarks Region - Research Highlight, Megan Woltz

The Confluence

Ants are species diverse, widespread, and critically important to their environments. For many ant species, we do not have clear data on their ranges. Barcoding US Ants is a citizen science project run by the DNA Learning Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to collect and sequence DNA from ants from around the country (CSHL, 2020). The sequences are submitted to GenBank, the DNA sequence database (NIH 2020). We formed one of the Ozarks Region teams for the Barcoding US Ants project, contributing ants from riparian forests and grassy meadows in the St. Charles, MO area. We collected 8 ant …

Summer To Autumn Population Of Wild Eumaeus Atala On The Ft. Lauderdale Campus Of Nova Southeastern University, Alexandra M. Lens

Mako: NSU Undergraduate Student Journal

Eumaeus atala is an endangered tropical butterfly native to the Caribbean and some parts of Florida, USA. Following population reductions primarily due to habitat loss, E. atala populations are now increasing due to conservation efforts of its cycad host plants, especially Zamia integrifolia (coontie). The purpose of this study was to observe, document, and measure the population of wild E. atala on the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida campus of Nova Southeastern University where landscaping use of host plants supports a natural population of E. atala. Forty-four host plants located in two different sites were observed for 14 weeks. One site …

Stable Hydrogen Isotopes Of Aquatic-Emergent Versus Terrestrial Insects In Southern Ontario, Celina Y. Tang

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Aquatic-emergent insects are vectors of both contaminants and nutrients, linking the aquatic system to the terrestrial system. Aquatic-emergent insects are high in omega-3 fatty acids that benefit terrestrial aerial insectivores, such as bats and birds. With aerial insectivores on a decline, a contributing factor could be a decrease in the quality of insects. We collected insects from lakeshore and inland locations in Southern Ontario. Insects sampled included bees, wasps, ants, beetles, caddisflies, craneflies, dragonflies, marchflies, mayflies, midges, other flies, and true bugs. Insects’ wings and powdered bodies were then analyzed for stable hydrogen isotopes (d²H) in order …

Interspersed Denuded Zone (Idz): How Patchy Leaf Litter Dynamics In A Buckthorn-Invaded Urban Woodland Can Affect Microarthropod Species Richness, Angela Stenberg

DePaul Discoveries

Biodiversity loss may serve as a key diagnostic of the Anthropocene. An important driver of this loss is by means of invasive species. In this study of a forest preserve in Chicago, Illinois we examined Interspersed Denuded Zones (IDZs for short), which are areas of patchy leaf litter in invaded forests caused in this case by the rapid decomposition of litter from buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica). We characterized the leaf litter mass in IDZs and enumerated litter-inhabiting microarthropod populations. We found that plots of high buckthorn density are associated with IDZs: there was significantly less leaf litter mass in …

Mosquito Distribution And Stoichiometric Analysis Between Open And Closed Canopies In New Orleans Cemeteries, Rachel Rogers

LSU Master's Theses

Cemetery vases represent an important container habitat for mosquito larvae. Some species, like, Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti, prefer container habitats, whereas others, like Culex quinquefasciatus, will opportunistically use containers. In New Orleans, these three medically important vector species (Ae. albopictus Ae. aegypti, and Cx. quinquefasciatus) co-occur, despite a demonstrated competitive advantage of Ae. albopictus to the other two. Here we test the hypothesis that canopy cover from trees could be a mediating factor in driving mosquito assemblages in New Orleans, by influencing food sources, and the microclimate experienced by mosquito larvae. Samples from seven …

Development Of A Rapid Drug Detection Method For Insects Using Paper Spray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (Psi-Ms), Alexandria Plyler

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

Insects have the ability to reflect the chemical environment that they have developed in. Thus, necrogenous insects can reflect the chemical environment of cadavers they have fed on. Forensic scientists can potentially utilize insect larvae as an alternate biological matrix to detect drugs in cadavers that are skeletonized, burned, or otherwise badly damaged. Analysis of insects using paper spray ionization mass spectrometry (PSI-MS), an analytical method requiring little to no sample preparation, could prove a rapid, cost-effective, and non-destructive alternative form of toxicological analysis. Traditional tissue analysis via GC and LC-MS often require lengthy sample preparation, use expensive reagents, and …

Use Of Lymesim 2.0 To Assess The Potential For Single And Integrated Management Methods To Control Blacklegged Ticks (Ixodes Scapularis; Acari: Ixodidae) And Transmission Of Lyme Disease Spirochetes, Shravani Chitineni, Elizabeth R. Gleim, Holly D. Gaff

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Annual Lyme disease cases continue to rise in the U.S. making it the most reported vector-borne illness in the country. The pathogen (Borrelia burgdorferi) and primary vector (Ixodes scapularis; blacklegged tick) dynamics of Lyme disease are complicated by the multitude of vertebrate hosts and varying environmental factors, making models an ideal tool for exploring disease dynamics in a time- and cost-effective way. In the current study, LYMESIM 2.0, a mechanistic model, was used to explore the effectiveness of three commonly used tick control methods: habitat-targeted acaricide (spraying), rodent-targeted acaricide (bait boxes), and white-tailed deer targeted acaricide (4-poster …

A Review And Comparison Of U.S. State Wildlife Action Plans For Stonefly (Insecta, Plecoptera) Species Of Greatest Conservation Need, Kathryn Greene

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) were created in order to identify Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) and develop plans to prevent their populations from further decline and the possibility of being listed as threatened or endangered. Which SGCNs are included are decided based on characteristics that determine their vulnerability. As of early 2021, approximately 720stoneflies (Insecta, Plecoptera) species are found in the U.S., but only 143 are listed as SGCN. Only 29 states have stoneflies included on their SGCN lists, but 37 states use EPT (Ephemeroptera + Plecoptera + Trichoptera) metrics when assessing water quality issues in running water …

A Bayesian Hierarchical Mixture Model With Continuous-Time Markov Chains To Capture Bumblebee Foraging Behavior, Max Thrush Hukill

Honors Projects

The standard statistical methodology for analyzing complex case-control studies in ethology is often limited by approaches that force researchers to model distinct aspects of biological processes in a piecemeal, disjointed fashion. By developing a hierarchical Bayesian model, this work demonstrates that statistical inference in this context can be done using a single coherent framework. To do this, we construct a continuous-time Markov chain (CTMC) to model bumblebee foraging behavior. To connect the experimental design with the CTMC, we employ a mixture model controlled by a logistic regression on the two-factor design matrix. We then show how to infer these model …

Power Amplification Strategies Across Animals, Rayhan Asif

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Animals use muscles for movement, but some have evolved mechanisms to exceed maximum power used in a motion known as power amplification. In this literature review, I analyzed and compared the evolution of structures capable of power amplification between species. Structures capable of power amplification were broken down into the basic components of the engine, amplifier, and tool. The species analyzed were found to possess necessary structures for power amplification which were relatively similar to each other in morphology, but varied greatly in function. The ease with which these structures evolved was evaluated based on the amount of divergence which …

A Mathematical Model Of Flexible Collective Defense: Crisis Response In Stingless Bees, Maria Gabriela Navas Zuloaga, Kaitlin M. Baudier, Theodore P. Pavlic, Jennifer Fewell, Noam Ben-Asher, Yun Kang

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Extreme Fire As A Management Tool To Combat Regime Shifts In The Range Of The Endangered American Burying Beetle, Alison K. Ludwig, Daniel R. Uden, Dirac Twidwell

Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research in Agronomy and Horticulture

This study is focused on the population of federally-endangered American burying beetles in south-central Nebraska. It is focused on changes in land cover over time and at several levels of spatial scale, and how management efforts are impacting both the beetle and a changing landscape. Our findings are applicable to a large portion of the Great Plains, which is undergoing the same shift from grassland to woodland, and to areas where the beetle is still found.

Comparative Physiology Of Honey Bees (Apis Mellifera L.) Exposed To Chlorantraniliprole, Jennifer Williams

Dissertations and Student Research in Entomology

One outstanding threat to the honey bee, Apis mellifera L., is the unintended exposure of these pollinators to agricultural pesticides. Anthranilic diamides, such as chlorantraniliprole, work in target pests through activation of the ryanodine receptor causing rapid feeding cessation, lethargy, paralysis, and eventual death. Chlorantraniliprole exhibits low acute toxicity to honey bees but relatively little information exists regarding effects of chlorantraniliprole exposure beyond mortality. The acute toxicity and metabolic detoxification enzyme activities following oral exposure were determined in the honey bee and the model crop pest, the fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda, J.E. Smith). Additionally, chlorantraniliprole effects on honey bee …