Integrative Biology Commons^™

Impact Of Genetic Variation And Timescale On Diatom Salinity Stress Response, Kala M. Downey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Natural environments are dynamic, and organisms must sense and respond to changing conditions. One common way organisms deal with stressful environments is through gene expression changes, allowing for stress acclimation and resistance which occurs over varying time spans in different species. The recent evolutionary history of populations could greatly influence their ability to respond successfully. An evolutionary history in disturbed or fluctuating conditions could promote increased resistance or a more rapid response to these environmental stressors. To understand the impact of genotypic variation and timescales on response and acclimation to salinity changes, we have been exploiting the abilities of euryhaline …

The Effect Of Age On The Mating Call Of The Tungara Frog, Zaizhen Xu

Pacific Undergraduate Research and Creativity Conference (PURCC)

No abstract provided.

Use Of Intramodal Odor Cues In Shelter Recognition By An Amblypygid, Nathan Bostelman

Honors Projects

Amblypygids are nocturnal arthropods which live in cluttered habitats and possess the ability to navigate home after displacements of up to ten meters. Homing amblypygids rely on olfactory and tactile information gathered by their antenniform legs to navigate successfully. Given that odor signals encountered in nature are complex and dynamic, navigation via olfaction presents unique challenges related to signal uncertainty. To understand how amblypygids perceive perceive complex odors and what they learn from them, individuals of the subtropical amblypygid P. marginemaculatus were trained to associate a blend of two odors with a shelter and tested on three treatments: the reinforced …

Laurier Biology Departmental Seminars Poster Colouring Book (Vol 1), Tristan A.F. Long

Biology Faculty Publications

Departmental seminar posters are largely utilitarian affairs – who is talking?, when are they speaking?, where is the seminar? (and maybe will there will be refreshments served?). While functional, they often fail to capture the beauty and excitement of their subject matter, and may fail to engage a wider audience. As the organizer of the Wilfrid Laurier University Department of Biology seminar series in 2014, on a lark, I started drawing posters that tried to illustrate our speaker’s research in a non-conventional manner, and hopefully appeal to those that might otherwise find attending a departmental seminar intimidating. Little did I …

Annual Faculty Research Symposium 2022, Oakwood University

Proceedings

No abstract provided.

New Ant In The Big City: Known Natural History Of Lasius Cf. Emarginatus In Its Native Range And Potential Impacts Of Recent Us Introduction, Samantha M. Kennett, Clint A. Penick

Symposium of Student Scholars

New York City has been the site of introduction for some of North America’s most damaging invasive pests, from chestnut blight to the Asian long-horned beetle. Despite these cautionary examples, there has been no formal tracking of a newly introduced ant species, Lasius cf. emarginatus, which has quickly become among the most common species in the city. Sometime between the first ant diversity survey of New York City in 2006 and the second in 2011,L. cf. emarginatus was introduced and quickly became established in the most urban habitats with the highest human contact. In contrast to other urban …

Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Evades Predation By Myxococcus Xanthus, Sarah Joie Beauvais

Symposium of Student Scholars

Multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa causes an estimated 32,600 hospital-acquired-infections and 2,700 estimated deaths in the US in 2017(CDC). Myxococcus xanthus is a strain of myxobacteria that preys on Pseudomonas sp, through the production of antibiotics and digestive enzymes. In previous experiments, P. aeruginosa evaded predation, through an unknown mechanism. Using confocal microscopy, this research investigates if quorum sensing, a cell density-dependent signaling pathway, could be a factor in motility and evasion of M. xanthus. Liquid suspensions of log-phase PA01 were dyed with two fluorescent dyes: SYTO 9 for marking live cells and Propidium iodide (PI) for marking dead cells. …

Sex Ratios And The City: Is Parental Corticosterone A Mediator Of The Relationship Between Urbanization And Offspring Sex Allocation?, Denyelle Kilgour

Master of Science in Integrative Biology Theses

The Trivers-Willard hypothesis states that mothers can adjust their offspring sex ratios according to their own condition and the environmental conditions they face during breeding. Past tests of this hypothesis in avian species have focused on how natural variation shapes sex allocation trade-offs. However, urbanization also influences individual condition and presents animals with novel challenges in optimizing their brood sex ratio. One likely mediator of the relationship between environmental conditions, parental condition, and sex ratios is corticosterone (CORT), the primary glucocorticoid in birds. However, no research has examined the links between urbanization, individual condition, CORT, and adaptive sex allocation within …

Sex And Starvation Influences Latrotoxin Expression In The Brown Widow Spider, Mattie Harris

Honors College Theses

Widow spiders (genus Latrodectus) are well-known for their potent venom. Seven latrotoxin proteins constitute the main components of widow spider venom. The vertebrate specific (α-latrotoxin) and insect specific (α-latroinsectotoxin) latrotoxins have been well-characterized with respect to structure and function. Regulation of latrotoxin gene expression is not well understood but sex and feeding could be factors influencing production. In this study, I used quantitative qPCR to (1) characterize the expression patterns of both the insect and vertebrate specific latrotoxins in male and female brown widow spiders (Latrodectus geometricus) to characterize sex-biased expression and to (2) study expression patterns …

Salicylic Acid And N-Hydroxypipecolic Acid At The Fulcrum Of The Plant Immunity-Growth Equilibrium, Alyssa Shields, Vanessa Shivnauth, Christian Danve M. Castroverde

Biology Faculty Publications

Salicylic acid (SA) and N-hydroxypipecolic acid (NHP) are two central plant immune signals involved in both resistance at local sites of pathogen infection (basal resistance) and at distal uninfected sites after primary infection (systemic acquired resistance). Major discoveries and advances have led to deeper understanding of their biosynthesis and signaling during plant defense responses. In addition to their well-defined roles in immunity, recent research is emerging on their direct mechanistic impacts on plant growth and development. In this review, we will first provide an overview of how SA and NHP regulate local and systemic immune responses in plants. We …

Phylogenomic Discordance Suggests Polytomies Along The Backbone Of The Large Genus Solanum, Edeline Gagnon, Rebeccca Hilgenhof, Andrés Orejuela, Angela J. Mcdonnell, Gaurav Sablok, Xavier Aubriot, Leandro Giacomin, Yuri Gouvêa, Thamyris Bragionis, João Renato Stehmann, Lynn Bohs, Steven Dodsworth, Christopher T. Martine, Péter Poczai, Sandra Knapp, Tiina Särkinen

Faculty Journal Articles

Premise of the study

Evolutionary studies require solid phylogenetic frameworks, but increased volumes of phylogenomic data have revealed incongruent topologies among gene trees in many organisms both between and within genomes. Some of these incongruences indicate polytomies that may remain impossible to resolve. Here we investigate the degree of gene-tree discordance in Solanum, one of the largest flowering plant genera that includes the cultivated potato, tomato, and eggplant, as well as 24 minor crop plants.

Methods

A densely sampled species-level phylogeny of Solanum is built using unpublished and publicly available Sanger sequences comprising 60% of all accepted species (742 spp.) …

Generalizing Frameworks For Sentience Beyond Natural Species, Michael Levin

Animal Sentience

Crump et al. (2022) offer a well-argued example of an essential development: a rigorous framework for assessing sentience from the perspective of moral concern over an agent’s welfare. Current and forthcoming developments in bioengineering, synthetic morphology, artificial intelligence, biorobotics, and exobiology necessitate an expansion and generalization of this effort. Verbal reports (the Turing Test) and homology to human brains are utterly inadequate criteria for assessing the status of novel, unconventional agents that offer no familiar touchstone of phylogeny or anatomy. We must develop principled approaches to evaluating the sentience of (and thus, our responsibility to) beings of unfamiliar provenance and …

Sentience As Part Of Emotional Lives, Frans B. M. De Waal

Animal Sentience

It is high time to explore the sentience of invertebrate animals, but this topic cannot be discussed without also exploring their emotional lives, including positive emotions. Sentience probably evolved to allow the regulation of emotions by endowing them with feelings.

Land Reversion And Zoonotic Spillover Risk, John E. Vinson, Nicole L. Gottdenker, Luis Fernando Chaves, Rajreni B. Kaul, Andrew M. Kramer, John M. Drake, Richard J. Hall

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

Deforestation alters wildlife communities and modifies human–wildlife interactions, often increasing zoonotic spillover potential. When deforested land reverts to forest, species composition differences between primary and regenerating (secondary) forest could alter spillover risk trajectory. We develop a mathematical model of land-use change, where habitats differ in their relative spillover risk, to understand how land reversion influences spillover risk. We apply this framework to scenarios where spillover risk is higher in deforested land than mature forest, reflecting higher relative abundance of highly competent species and/or increased human–wildlife encounters, and where regenerating forest has either very low or high spillover risk. We find …

Analysing Economic Costs Of Invasive Alien Species With The Invacost R Package, Boris Leroy, Andrew M. Kramer, Anne-Charlotte Vaissière, Melina Kourantidou, Franck Courchamp, Christophe Diagne

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

1. The reported costs of invasive alien species from the global database InvaCost are heterogeneous and cover different spatio-temporal scales. A standard procedure for aggregating invasive species cost estimates is necessary to ensure the repeatability and comparativeness of studies.
2. We introduce here the invacost r package, an open-source software designed to query and analyse the InvaCost database. We illustrate this package and its framework with cost data associated with invasive alien invertebrates.
3. First, the invacost package provides updates of this dynamic database directly in the analytical environment R. Second, it helps understand the heterogeneous nature of monetary cost data for invasive …

What Is The Recorded Economic Cost Of Alien Invasive Fishes Worldwide?, Phillip J. Haubrock, Camille Bernery, Ross N. Cuthbert, Chunlong Liu, Melina Kourantidou, Boris Leroy, Anna J. Turbelin, Andrew M. Kramer, Laura Verbrugge, Christophe Diagne, Franck Courchamp, Rodolphe E. Gozlan

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

Invasive alien fishes have caused pernicious ecological impacts on aquatic ecosystems. However, there has not been a global appraisal of associated economic impacts. Here, we compiled reported economic impacts of invasive alien fishes using the most comprehensive global database of invasion costs (InvaCost). We analyze how fish invasion costs are distributed geographically and temporally, as well as which socioeconomic sectors are most impacted. Fish invasions have caused the economic loss of at least US$32.8 billion globally (2017 value), from only 26 reported species (of 128 known invasive alien fish species). North America had the highest costs (> 99%), followed by …

Analysing Economic Costs Of Invasive Alien Species With The Invacost R Package, Boris Leroy, Andrew M. Kramer, Anne-Charlotte Vaissière, Melina Kourantidou, Franck Courchamp, Christophe Diagne

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

1. The reported costs of invasive alien species from the global database InvaCost are heterogenous and cover different spatio-temporal scales. A standard procedure for aggregating invasive species cost estimates is necessary to ensure the repeatability and comparativeness of studies.

2. We introduce here the invacost R package, an open-source software designed to query and analyse the InvaCost database. We illustrate this package and its framework with cost data associated with invasive alien invertebrates.

3. First, the invacost package provides updates of this dynamic database directly in the analytical environment R. Second, it helps understand the heteregoneous nature of monetary cost data for invasive …

The Magnitude, Diversity, And Distribution Of The Economic Costs Of Invasive Terrestrial Invertebrates Worldwide, David Renault, Elena Angulo, Ross N. Cuthbert, Phillip J. Haubrock, César Capinha, Alok Bang, Andrew M. Kramer, Franck Courchamp

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

Invasive alien species (IAS) are a major driver of global biodiversity loss, hampering conservation efforts and disrupting ecosystem functions and services. While accumulating evidence documented ecological impacts of IAS across major geographic regions, habitat types and taxonomic groups, appraisals for economic costs remained relatively sparse. This has hindered effective cost-benefit analyses that inform expenditure on management interventions to prevent, control, and eradicate IAS. Terrestrial invertebrates are a particularly pervasive and damaging group of invaders, with many species compromising primary economic sectors such as forestry, agriculture and health. The present study provides synthesised quantifications of economic costs caused by invasive terrestrial …

Biological Invasion Costs Reveal Insufficient Proactive Management Worldwide, Ross N. Cuthbert, Christophe Diagne, Emma J. Hudgins, Anna Turbelin, Danish A. Ahmed, Céline Albert, Thomas W. Bodey, Elizabeta Briski, Franz Essl, Phillip J. Haubrock, Rodolphe E. Gozlan, Natalia Kirichenko, Melina Kourantidou, Andrew M. Kramer, Franck Courchamp

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

The global increase in biological invasions is placing growing pressure on the management of ecological and economic systems. However, the effectiveness of current management expenditure is difficult to assess due to a lack of standardised measurement across spatial, taxonomic and temporal scales. Furthermore, there is no quantification of the spending difference between pre-invasion (e.g. prevention) and post-invasion (e.g. control) stages, although preventative measures are considered to be the most cost-effective. Here, we use a comprehensive database of invasive alien species economic costs (InvaCost) to synthesise and model the global management costs of biological invasions, in order to provide a better …

Economic Costs Of Biological Invasions In The United States, Jean E. Fantle-Lepczyk, Phillip J. Haubrock, Andrew M. Kramer, Ross N. Cuthbert, Anna J. Turbelin, Robert Crystal-Ornelas, Christophe Diagne, Franck Courchamp

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

The United States has thousands of invasive species, representing a sizable, but unknown burden to the national economy. Given the potential economic repercussions of invasive species, quantifying these costs is of paramount importance both for national economies and invasion management. Here, we used a novel global database of invasion costs (InvaCost) to quantify the overall costs of invasive species in the United States across spatiotemporal, taxonomic, and socioeconomic scales. From 1960 to 2020, reported invasion costs totaled $4.52 trillion (USD 2017). Considering only observed, highly reliable costs, this total cost reached $1.22 trillion with an average annual cost of …