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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Implications Of Spatial Autocorrelation And Dispersal For The Modeling Of Species Distributions, Volker Bahn
Implications Of Spatial Autocorrelation And Dispersal For The Modeling Of Species Distributions, Volker Bahn
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Modeling the geographical distributions of wildlife species is important for ecology and conservation biology. Spatial autocorrelation in species distributions poses a problem for distribution modeling because it invalidates the assumption of independence among sample locations. I explored the prevalence and causes of spatial autocorrelation in data from the Breeding Bird Survey, covering the conterminous United States, using Regression Trees, Conditional Autoregressive Regressions (CAR), and the partitioning of variance. I also constructed a simulation model to investigate dispersal as a process contributing to spatial autocorrelation, and attempted to verify the connection between dispersal and spatial autocorrelation in species' distributions in empirical …
Using Domination To Analyze Rna Structures., Travis Reves Coake
Using Domination To Analyze Rna Structures., Travis Reves Coake
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Understanding RNA molecules is important to genomics research. Recently researchers at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences used graph theory to model RNA molecules and provided a database of trees representing possible secondary RNA structures. In this thesis we use domination parameters to predict which trees are more likely to exist in nature as RNA structures. This approach appears to have promise in graph theory applications in genomics research.
Grassland And Woodland Bird Occurrence And Habitat Selection In The Prairie-Forest Transition Zone Of Minnesota, Thomas Robert Cooper
Grassland And Woodland Bird Occurrence And Habitat Selection In The Prairie-Forest Transition Zone Of Minnesota, Thomas Robert Cooper
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Numerous species of woodland and grassland nesting birds have experienced population declines in the midwestern United States. Habitat loss and habitat fragmentation are suspected to be two of the underlying causes for the population declines of woodland and grassland birds. The Minnesota Valley Wetland Management District (WMD) covers 14 counties in southeastern Minnesota in the transition zone between forested and prairie ecoregions. Little information is available relative to which birds are using grassland or woodland habitat within the WMD and how their presence or absence is related to the available habitat conditions. Therefore, my study objectives were to: 1) determine …
Digital Vertical Aerial Camera System For High-Resolution Site Inspections In Conservation Easment Monitoring, Kenton Williams
Digital Vertical Aerial Camera System For High-Resolution Site Inspections In Conservation Easment Monitoring, Kenton Williams
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
A three-level satellite to ground monitoring scheme for conservation easement monitoring has been implemented in which high-resolution imagery serves as an intermediate step for inspecting high priority sites. A digital vertical aerial camera system was developed to fulfill the need for an economical source of imagery for this intermediate step. A method for attaching the camera system to small aircraft was designed, and the camera system was calibrated and tested. To ensure that the images obtained were of suitable quality for use in Level 2 inspections, rectified imagery was required to provide positional accuracy of 5 meters or less to …