Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

The Effect Of Diet On Hydrogen Sulfide Tolerance Of Extremophile Fishes, Kyliyah Walker, Michael Tobler, Bethany Williams

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Poecilia mexicana are a species of live-bearing fish that have adapted to surviving in hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) abundant waters. Sites that are high in toxic H₂S are also characterized by low levels of oxygen, making any organism that inhabits these tough conditions to be deemed extremophiles. Tolerance of these multiple stressors is impacted by numerous external environmental factors. The question being addressed in this study is if diet affects how well these fish tolerate H₂S. I used 80 laboratory-bred female P. mexicana originating from two sulfidic and non-sulfidic population. Half of the fish from …

Current Threat To The Native Endemic Muckalee Crayfish (Procambarus Gibbus) From An Invasive Crayfish (Faxonius Palmeri Creolanus) And Tests Of Cold Tolerance As A Limiting Factor, Alexandria L. Exum, Nickeya Wynn, William Ellerbee, Madaline Toth, Otto T. Lorenz

Georgia Journal of Science

Surveys for native and invasive crayfish were conducted in Muckalee creek in 2015 and 2021. Both surveys used passive minnow traps and examined upstream and downstream sites, including at the mouth of the creek where it connects with the Flint River. The Flint River has been overrun with an invasive crayfish species, Faxonius palmeri creolanus (Creole Painted Crayfish) and its range has spread rapidly throughout southwest Georgia. In Muckalee Creek there were only a few F. p. creolanus found during each survey and both times they were only found at the mouth of the creek. One hypothesis on why they …

Robustness Of Network Inference Algorithms Under Network Class Misspecification, Roberto Ceja

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Inferring phylogenies in the presence of hybridization remains a difficult problem. As a result, many current methods for reconstructing phylogenetic networks are restricted to a simple class of networks known as level-1. This restriction arises from theoretical considerations rather than empirical evidence, with real data possibly arising from complex networks. In this work, we evaluate the robustness of two level-1 network inference methods, SNaQ and NANUQ+, through a simulation study, when the input data originates from a more complex network. Specifically, we investigate whether these methods can accurately recover important features of the true species network, such as the circular …

Flower Color Variation And Its Maintenance: Experimental Ecology Of Serpentine-Adapted Leptosiphon Parviflorus Benth. (Polemoniaceae), Magdalene S. Lo

Master's Theses

Environmental heterogeneity can impose fluctuating selection pressures on species across space and time. If variations of a trait provide fitness benefits in certain environmental conditions but not others, these fitness tradeoffs under fluctuating selection could be a means of maintaining intraspecific variation. A common type of intraspecific variation is the production of anthocyanins, pigments responsible for red, pink, and blue colors in plants and that can also provide protection from abiotic stressors, such as water limitation and heavy metals. Leptosiphon parviflorus Benth. (Polemoniaceae, variable linanthus) is an annual wildflower whose individuals produce either pink or white flowers, and both flower …

Why The Long Face? The Distribution And Niche Of The Imperiled Narrow-Faced Kangaroo Rat (Dipodomys Venustus), Garrett L. Gimbel

Master's Theses

Distribution models provide a practical use case of connecting ecological niche theory with species’ occurrence and assemblages. By explicitly linking Hutchinson’s “niche space” with geographic space researchers can gain valuable information on a species’ niche characteristics and interactions, thereby informing conservation and management practices. The narrow-faced kangaroo rat (Dipodomys venustus) is a highly understudied kangaroo rat species endemic to the central coast of California and is an ideal species to explore niche theory in distribution modeling. Three subspecies are currently recognized: The Santa Cruz kangaroo rat (D. v. venustus), the elephant-eared kangaroo rat (D. v. …

The Ecology Of Arthropod Rain In A Tropical Forest., Andrew Robert Seiler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tropical forests are structured by complex vertical linkages and nutrient exchanges between canopy and understory habitats. These linkages include the downward flux of organisms, the movement of canopy fauna, and the recycling of nutrients through litter and organic matter deposition. This dissertation investigates arthropod rain and its role in connecting the canopy and forest floor processes in a lowland tropical forest in Panama. Chapter 2 quantifies “arthropod rain”, the fall of canopy arthropods into the understory. Using pan and pole traps, I measured the composition, abundance, and biomass of arthropods falling from the canopy and assessed environmental drivers of the …

Drivers Of Faunal Communities In Isolated Wetlands: Local And Landscape Determinants Of Assemblages, Joshua Holbrook

All Dissertations

Ecological interactions such as predation are vital to shaping the distribution of organisms. For interactions to occur, organisms must undertake movement, such as dispersal, that places them in proximity to the organisms with which they may interact. Geographically isolated wetlands (GIW) are productive and biodiverse ecosystems, but little is known on broad geographic scales about the determinants of their fauna. Fishes have difficulty colonizing GIW, whereas amphibians and macroinvertebrates are adept overland dispersers – though they may be sensitive to top-down control by fishes. To better understand these phenomena, I sampled 10-20 wetlands each at nine regions in North and …

Plant Community Responses To Wildfire, Timber Thinning, And Bison Reintroduction On The Northern Great Plains, Ethan H. Van-Derpoel

All Theses

The Northern Great Plains (NGP) is one of the largest intact grasslands remaining in the world. These two studies examine a few of the ecological concerns on the NGP today. First, the woody encroachment of conifers into grasslands and the effects of wildfires. Second, the effects of bison (Bison bison) reintroduction on plant communities. In Chapter 1, this study aims to examine the effects of wildfire and mechanical timber thinning, using a two-by-two factorial design, on plant community responses and forage quality in the Bull Mountains area of central Montana, USA. We found that our treatments had varying …

The Effect Of Noise Pollution On The Diversity And Abundance Of Bird Species At Different Locations At Warner Parks, Nashville, Tn, Jeremy T. Little, Wyatt L. Fooks, Darlene Panvini, Jackson Whiteside

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

Noise pollution is a significant abiotic factor that can alter bird biodiversity and abundance of birds in urbanized areas. A new road is proposed through a relatively untouched area of Warner Parks in Nashville, TN, which may affect the bird community. Acoustic Song Meters were used to monitor bird sounds and soundscapes in the proposed road site and two areas of the park with different levels of noise pollution (roadside=high noise; isolated=low noise) for three weeks. Recordings were analyzed to determine bird species and abundance at each site to predict how increasing noise pollution may affect bird diversity in the …

A Silver Spoon Effect Reduces Lifetime Fitness In A Declining Loon Population, Walter H. Piper, Claudia Kodsuntie, Hayden Walkush

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

A complete understanding of factors that influence animal fitness requires that we measure not only those occurring day to day in the life of an animal but also those that operate on longer time scales. Here, we investigated silver spoon effects (fitness impacts resulting from conditions faced early in life) and carryover effects (fitness impacts caused by environmental factors in a previous season) in a northern Wisconsin population of the common loon (Gavia immer). The mass of a loon chick divided by its age, an indication of food it received from its parents in its first 4 to …

Harnessing Hyperspectral Imaging And Deep Learning For Terrestrial Habitat Mapping In Arid Landscapes: A Case Study In Saudi Arabia, Ali Elgendy, Hesham Morgan, Brandon Tran, Rejoice Thomas, Tamer Ismail, Yehya Kh. Shehadeh, Ahmed Elgharib, Ahmed Abdullah Al-Dughairi, Ali El Muburak, Khaled Allam Harhash, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Arid ecosystems remain under-mapped at actionable scales despite their ecological importance. Decision makers lack reliable, high-resolution habitat maps in drylands to prioritize protection and target restoration. This research integrates spaceborne hyperspectral imaging from the Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) with deep learning semantic segmentation models to produce an updated level of habitat classification based on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for part of the Imam Turki bin Abdullah Royal Reserve, Saudi Arabia. Using ground control points and the full EnMAP spectral cube without band selection, U-Net and DeepLabV3+ architectures were each implemented with VGG19 and ResNet-101 …

Seagrass Persistence In The Indian River Lagoon And Lake Worth Lagoon, Florida, Kelly Kibler, Melinda Donnelly, Vincent Encomio, Madison Giuntoli, Manisha Thenuwara, Brice Bennett, Laura Andrade Barron, Mariam Sonbol, Wynter Raine Seppala, Namritha Ramakrishnan, Jennifer Jordan Báez, Beth Orlando, Irene Arpayoglou, Melissa Meisenburg

Indian River Lagoon Shorelines

The spatial dataset: UCF_seagrasspersistence_IRL_LWL.shp was created with support from the Indian River Lagoon National Estuaries Program and Florida Sea Grant. These projects cumulatively led to creation of a living shoreline restoration prioritization model and hydrodynamic habitat suitability models for 1,550 km (963 miles) of estuarine shorelines in Indian River Lagoon (IRL) and Lake Worth Lagoon (LWL). The dataset presented herein represents persistence of seagrass throughout waters of the IRL and LWL.

Histamine And Serotonin Impact Anopheles Stephensi Population Dynamics And Malaria Transmission: Perspectives From Mathematical Modeling, Michael Robert

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Spread Of Black Sigatoka Disease: A Deterministic And Stochastic Modeling Approach, Bernard Asamoah Afful, Luis F. Gordillo

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Modeling Probiotic Bacterial Control Of White-Nose Syndrome In Little Brown Bat Colonies, Bethany Droubay, Alex Capaldi

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Analyzing Urban Space-Use Of White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus Virginianus), Szandra A. Péter, Zehidul Hussain, Solena Kronstedt, Amira Roess, Jennifer Mullinax, Travis Gallo, Taylor Anderson

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Living Shoreline Prioritization And Hydrodynamic Habitat Suitability Models For Restoration In The Indian River Lagoon And Lake Worth Lagoon, Florida, Kelly M. Kibler, Melinda J. Donnelly, Vincent Encomio, Madison Giuntoli, Manisha Thenuwara, Brice Bennett, Laura Andrade Barron, Mariam Sonbol, Wynter Raine Seppala, Namritha Ramakrishnan, Jennifer Jordan Báez, Beth Orlando, Irene Arpayoglou, Melissa Meisenburg

Indian River Lagoon Shorelines

The spatial dataset: UCF_shorelinemodel_IRL_LWL.shp, was created with support from the Indian River Lagoon National Estuaries Program and Florida Sea Grant. These projects cumulatively led to creation of a living shoreline restoration prioritization model and hydrodynamic habitat suitability models for 1,550 km (963 miles) of estuarine shorelines in Indian River Lagoon and Lake Worth Lagoon.

The dataset presented herein includes:

1. shoreline data from >15,000 transects collected in the field,
2. shoreline wave climate data created through hydrodynamic modeling and frequency analysis of historic data,
3. categorization of potential risk for shoreline boat wake impact,
4. persistence of seagrass within 210 m of the shoreline, …

Dramatic Biases In Terrestrial Nitrogen Fixation In Earth System Models Revealed By Natural Isotope Signatures, Maoyuan Fang, Shushi Peng, Philippe Ciais, Daniel S. Goll, Benjamin Z. Houlton, Ying-Ping Wang, Yilong Wang, Pan Liu, Joshua B. Fisher, Pierre Regnier

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is the primary input of new reactive nitrogen to natural terrestrial ecosystems. However, this flux is poorly constrained due to its unclear drivers and associated control mechanisms. Here, we extend the existing theory of nitrogen (N) isotope mass balance to estimate BNF rates and then use a Bayesian approach to constrain the BNF rates in natural terrestrial ecosystems by using measurements of natural N-isotope ratios (δ¹⁵N) in plants (δ_P) and soil (δ_S). Together with pairwise δ_P and δ_S measurements from 18 forest sites covering diverse climates and thousands …

The Effects Of Plastic Mulch And Irrigation On Hemp Chemistry And Leaf Endophytes, Allison Rietman, Connor Morozumi, Robert C. Pearce, Natalie Christian

Journal of Agricultural Hemp Research

As an emerging crop, cultivation techniques for industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) are still being developed and optimized. For example, irrigation and plastic mulching are some management practices that have been touted for their benefits in improving crop quality. Both techniques ensure ample water availability, which has often been attributed to improving hemp cannabinoid and terpene composition. In this study, we examined how supplemental irrigation implemented in a plastic mulch system influenced the cannabinoid and terpene profiles of one cultivar of CBD hemp, Lifter. We grew industrial hemp in field with plastic mulch and applied regular irrigation to one group …

Zero Textbook Cost Syllabus For Env 3070 (Agroecology), Benjamin Iuliano

Open Educational Resources

Our relationships with the food we eat are deeply personal, but also connect us to a wide array of people, plants, animals, and landscapes around the world. Encompassing a diversity of scholarly approaches, the field of agroecology seeks to understand the interactions among these components, draw attention to the consequences of our present industrial food system, and create the conditions for more sustainable and just futures. In this course, students will learn about the science, practice, and social movement of agroecology through lectures, course discussions, field trips, and hands-on activities.